Context
"Her mother, Sopha, had delivered ten children, the first when she was only seventeen. Elizebeth, born in 1892, was the youngest." The Codebreaker, 2021.
Childhood
Elizebeth Friedman was born on August 26, 1892, in Huntington, Indiana. She was the youngest of nine in a farm-owning Quaker household. Defying her father’s expectations to marry early, she pursued higher education, graduating from Hillsdale College with a degree in English literature.
"The odious name of Smith. It seems that when I am introduced to a stranger by this most meaningless of phrases, plain 'Miss Smith,' that I shall be forever in yay stranger's estimation, eliminated from any category even approaching anything interesting or at all uncommon."
-Elizebeth Smith Friedman
Years at Riverbank
At the age of 23, Elizebeth began work at Chicago’s Newberry Library. She was then introduced to Colonel George Fabyan, the owner of Riverbank Laboratories, where cryptology was first promoted. There, she met her future husband, William Friedman, and refined her code-breaking.
1st: Elizebeth S. Friedman Receives Her Honorary Degree from Hillsdale College. 1930s.
2nd: Elizebeth S. Friedman with George Fabyan at Riverbank Laboratories.
3rd: A View from a Window at Riverbank
4th: William F. Friedman and Elizebeth S. Friedman’s Marriage Certificate. 1917.
5th: William F. Friedman, in uniform, poses with Elizebeth S. Friedman on a deck at Riverbank Laboratories
6th: 1928 Christmas Card
Courtesy of the George Marshall Foundation.
Elizebeth's contributions at Riverbank. The Codebreaker, 2021.
As the United States entered World War I, radio-transmitted messages became more frequent. There was no official US code-breaking agency then, so Fabyan offered Riverbank to be the first. With the Friedmans in charge, thousands of messages sent by the government were solved within eight months. After the war, Elizebeth took a job at the Army with her husband. However, because she was offered half William’s wage, she left after a year.
"We glide over the offensiveness of names and calm down our consciences by eulogistic mellifluous terms, until our very moral senses are dulled. Let things be shown, let them come forth in their real colors, and humanity will not be so prone to a sin which is glossed over by a dainty public!"
-Elizebeth Smith Friedman