From the June 9, 1917 edition of Motion Picture World:

“Miss Dorothy Dunn, actress, author and traveler, has entered a new field of endeavor. She holds the distinction of being the only woman staff photographer in the motion picture field. Muss Dunn is a regular member of the Universal Animated Weekly corps and covers her assignments on the same basis as her male confreres. She operates a motion picture camera with skill and takes pictures wherever she is sent, regardless of the danger involved.

Before taking up the work of a camerawoman, Miss Dunn was a motion picture actress. Possessing a mechanical turn of mind, she spent her leisure hours in the studio studying the mechanism of the camera. Deciding there was more excitement covering fires, riots, parades, celebrations, wrecks and the numerous events that the news pictorial men are called upon to photograph, she gave up the screen to gather material for it.

Miss Dunn has already established herself as a competent and able handler of the camera since joining the Universal forces.

Miss Dunn appeared to have been treated as an equal when it came to assignments and very likely the only reason Universal even considered hiring her for a “man’s job” was because of World War I. Most of the young men who made up the newsreel staff were being drafted to head to the fronts in Europe and there were no unions then to oppose Dunn’s hiring.