1 Dollar In the name of Elizabeth II; Kathleen “Kit” Coleman

Who was “Kit”? That’s what readers of the Toronto Daily Mail (later The Mail and Empire) were asking, as they pored over the writings of Kathleen Blake Coleman. An intrepid reporter with a lively journalistic voice, “Kit” Coleman rose above the fray in the male-dominated newspaper industry, tackling a wide range of issues as well as the topics typically covered in women’s columns. She made history 125 years ago by becoming North America’s first accredited woman war correspondent. Coleman also helped establish the Canadian Women’s Press Club in 1904 and served as its first president, and later became Canada’s first syndicated woman columnist.

In a time when women journalists were limited to writing about the female perspective and women’s issues, Kathleen Blake Coleman paved the way for better representation in newsrooms and a more equal standing for Canadian women in other aspects of life.

The biggest challenge was conveying the sheer scope of “Kit” Coleman’s accomplishments. She was intrepid, undaunted and a creative thinker, and those qualities took her on many wide-ranging adventures. Each time it seemed as if she was backed into a corner, she'd think up some ingenious new plan that only made her story more exciting. She elevated thought and discourse, as well as the voices and status of women—this is surely her most immortal legacy, and it is my hope that we can inspire collectors everywhere to learn more about Kathleen Blake Coleman.
PANDORA YOUNG, ARTIST

Kathleen Blake Coleman, or Kit as she was known to her readers, was a pioneer female journalist in Canada, whose story is told on this well-deserved commemorative coin. She was an Irish immigrant to this country, struggled with single motherhood, and supported her children by producing an eclectic, interesting, and lively women’s page in Toronto’s Daily Mail, which later became the Mail and Empire. She loved to travel and write about her adventures and in 1898, her newspaper sent her to Cuba to cover the Spanish American War, a groundbreaking assignment that won her international fame.
DR. BARBARA FREEMAN, AUTHOR OF KIT’S KINGDOM: THE JOURNALISM OF KATHLEEN BLAKE COLEMAN

She was born Catherine Ferguson in 1856, in County Galway, Ireland, but identified herself privately as Kathleen Willis when she first came to Canada in 1884. She adopted the middle name Blake and by the time she began publishing, she was formally known as Kathleen Blake Watkins, and as Kathleen Blake Coleman when she later remarried.

Her pen name “Kit” and her public persona had readers guessing both her identity and gender. In her column, Coleman covered a wide range of topics in an attempt to break free from gender-based restrictions imposed upon the few presswomen of that era.

Kit first joined the Toronto Daily Mail as a women’s editor in 1889 in order to support herself and her two young children. Her weekly, seven-column “Woman’s Kingdom” page featured a mix of observations and advice, thought-provoking articles and travel writings. Coleman was known to go undercover in other cities, such as London and San Francisco, in order to write about social issues and the plight of the poor. Though her travel writings were curtailed after the Mail merged with the Empire in 1895, Kit was dispatched to London in 1897 to cover Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee; while there, she spent time with Sir Wilfrid Laurier, then the prime minister of Canada (and reportedly an avid reader of Coleman’s column).

In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, Coleman became North America’s first accredited woman war correspondent. While she was authorized to accompany American troops in Cuba, her male colleagues and the army commanders on the ground were opposed to the idea of having a woman in their midst, and they prevented her travel. Stranded in Florida, she eventually landed in Cuba in July 1898; while she had missed the main battles, her accounts of the war’s aftermath made her internationally famous.