Editing Elizebeth Smith Friedman

{{short description|American cryptanalyst and author (1892–1980)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=June 2013}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Elizebeth Smith Friedman
| image = Elizebeth-Friedman.jpg
| alt = Elizebeth Smith Friedman
| birth_name = Elizebeth Smith
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1892|08|26}} 
| birth_place = [[Huntington, Indiana]] U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1980|10|31|1892|08|26}} 
| death_place = [[Plainfield, New Jersey]] U.S.
| nationality = American
| occupation = [[Cryptanalyst]]
| years_active = 1916&ndash;1971<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|10-11, 334-337}}
| known_for = "America's first female cryptanalyst"<ref name=NSA-HallOfHonor-ElizebethSFriedman-1999 />
| spouse = [[William F. Friedman]]
| children = 2
}}

'''Elizebeth Smith Friedman''' (August 26, 1892 – October 31, 1980) was an [[Americans|American]] [[cryptanalyst]] and author who deciphered enemy codes in both [[World War]]s and helped to solve international [[smuggling]] cases during [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]]. Over the course of her career, she worked for the United States [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury]], [[United States Coast Guard|Coast Guard]], [[United States Navy|Navy]] and [[United States Army|Army]], and the [[International Monetary Fund]].<ref name=NYTimes-Elizebeth-Obit-1980>{{cite news|title=E.S. Friedman, 88, Cryptanalyst Who Broke Enemy Codes, Dies; Broke Bootleggers' Code|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F04EED81038E432A25750C0A9679D94619FD6CF&legacy=true|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=3 November 1980}}&nbsp;{{Closed access}}</ref> She has been called "America's first female cryptanalyst".<ref name="Time2021" /><ref name=Marshall-SmithFriedmanColl-FindingAid-2014>{{cite web|title=Elizebeth Smith Friedman Collection: Collection Guide|url=http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2014/06/Friedman_Elizabeth.pdf|website=[[George C. Marshall Foundation]]|format=Finding Aid|date=2014}}</ref><ref name=FriedmanCollection-AnalyticalGuide-2014>{{cite book|last1=Sheldon|first1=Rose Mary|title=The Friedman Collection: An Analytical Guide|date=2014|url=http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2014/09/Friedman_Collection_Guide_September_2014.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211106201729/http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2014/09/Friedman_Collection_Guide_September_2014.pdf |archive-date=November 6, 2021 }}</ref><ref name=NSA-HallOfHonor-ElizebethSFriedman-1999>{{cite web|title=Cryptologic Hall of Honor: Elizebeth S. Friedman|url=https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/historical-figures-publications/hall-of-honor/1999/efriedman.shtml|website=Cryptologic Hall of Honor|publisher=[[National Security Agency]]|language=en|date=3 May 2009}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Friedman was born in [[Huntington, Indiana]], to John Marion Smith, a [[Religious Society of Friends|Quaker]] dairyman, banker, and politician, and Sophia Smith (née Strock). Friedman was the youngest of nine surviving children (a tenth died in infancy) and was raised on a farm.<ref name=NSA-HallOfHonor-ElizebethSFriedman-1999 /><ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|7}}

From 1911 to 1913, Friedman attended [[The College of Wooster|Wooster College]] in [[Ohio]], but left when her mother became ill. In 1913, Friedman transferred to [[Hillsdale College]] in [[Michigan]], as it was closer to home.<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|8}} In 1915, she graduated with a major in English literature.<ref name=HillsdaleCollegian-LifeInCode-2017>{{cite news|last1=Noble|first1=Breana|title='A Life in Code' highlights first female cryptanalyst's accomplishments after Hillsdale|url=http://hillsdalecollegian.com/2017/03/36862/|work=[[The Collegian (Hillsdale College)|The Collegian]]|publisher=[[Hillsdale College]]|date=30 March 2017}}</ref> She was a member of [[Pi Beta Phi]]. Having exhibited her interest in languages, she had also studied [[Latin language|Latin]], [[Greek language|Greek]], and [[German language|German]], and minored "in a great many other things." Only she and one other sibling{{Which|date=November 2017}} attended college.<ref name=NSA-HallOfHonor-ElizebethSFriedman-1999 /> In 1938, Hillsdale awarded her an honorary doctor of laws degree.<ref name="NYTimes-Elizebeth-Obit-1980" /><ref name="WaPost-Elizebeth-Obit-1980" /> 

In the fall of 1915, Friedman became the substitute principal of a public high school in [[Wabash, Indiana]]. The position was short-lived, however, and in the spring of 1916, she quit and moved back in with her parents.<ref name=fagone2017>{{Cite book|title=The woman who smashed codes: a true story of love, spies, and the unlikely heroine who outwitted America's enemies|first=Jason|last=Fagone|date=September 26, 2017|publisher=Harper Collins|isbn=978-0062430489|edition=First |location=New York, New York|oclc=958781736}}</ref>

== Career ==

=== Riverbank Laboratories and World War I ===
[[File:William and Elizebeth Friedman 1917.jpg|thumb|William and Elizebeth Friedman, recently married, at Riverbank in 1917]]
Elizebeth Smith began working at [[Riverbank Laboratories]] in [[Geneva, Illinois]], in 1916. It was one of the first facilities in the U.S. established to study cryptography.<ref name= kahncodebreakers>{{Cite book| title= The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing|last=Kahn|first=David|publisher=Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc.| year= 1967| location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|371}} Colonel [[George Fabyan]], a wealthy textile merchant, owned Riverbank Laboratories and was interested in [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]. Friedman was looking for a job and visited Chicago's [[Newberry Library]], where she talked to a librarian who knew of Fabyan's interest. The librarian called Fabyan, who appeared in his limousine and invited Elizebeth to spend a night at Riverbank, where they discussed what life would be like at Fabyan's [[Fabyan Villa|great estate]] located in Geneva, Illinois.<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|15–16}} He told her that she would assist a Boston woman, [[Elizabeth Wells Gallup]], and her sister with Gallup's attempt to prove Sir [[Francis Bacon (philosopher)|Francis Bacon]] had [[Baconian theory of Shakespeare authorship|written Shakespeare's plays and sonnets]]. The work would involve decrypting enciphered messages that were supposed to have been contained within the plays and poems.<ref name= "NSA-HallOfHonor-ElizebethSFriedman-1999" />

On the staff at Riverbank was the man Elizebeth would marry in May 1917, [[William F. Friedman]], a plant biologist who also became involved in the Bacon-Shakespeare project.<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|xi}}

Riverbank gathered historical information on secret writing. Military cryptography had been deemphasized after the Civil War to the point that there were only three or four people in the United States who knew anything about the subject. Two of those people were Elizebeth and William Friedman.<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|67}} When the United States entered World War I, Fabyan established a new Riverbank Department of Ciphers, with the Friedmans in charge, and offered their services to the government.<ref name="Time2021" /><ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|68}} During the war, the Friedmans developed many of the principles of modern cryptology.<ref name="NSA CCH Aug 2020">{{cite web |title=Pioneering Codebreaker Elizebeth Friedman Honored by U.S. Coast Guard |url=https://www.nsa.gov/Press-Room/News-Highlights/Article/Article/2299166/pioneering-codebreaker-elizebeth-friedman-honored-by-us-coast-guard/ |website=National Security Agency/Central Security Service |access-date=1 April 2022 |date=4 August 2020}}</ref> Several U.S. government departments asked Riverbank Labs for help or sent personnel there for training. Among those was [[Agnes Meyer Driscoll]], who came on behalf of the [[U.S. Navy]].<ref name="Britannica Driscoll">{{cite web |last1=Hanyok |first1=Robert |title=Agnes Meyer Driscoll, American cryptologist |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Agnes-Meyer-Driscoll |website=www.britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=8 April 2022 |language=en |date=12 September 2021}}</ref>

The Friedmans worked together for the next four years in what was the only cryptographic facility in the country, until [[Herbert Yardley]]'s so-called "[[Black Chamber]]" was established as MI8, the Army's Cipher Bureau, in 1919. In 1921, the Friedmans left Riverbank to work for the [[United States Department of War|War Department]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Code Girls| last= Mundy| first=Liza|publisher=Hachette Books|year=2017|isbn=978-0-316-35253-6|location=New York |pages= 69}}</ref> Their previous efforts to leave had been thwarted by Fabyan, who intercepted their mail.<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|113}}

=== Prohibition ===
[[File:William F. Friedman and Elizebeth Smith Friedman - National Cryptologic Museum - DSC07696.JPG|thumb|[[William F. Friedman]] and Elizebeth Smith Friedman]]

The 1919 National Prohibition Act, also known as the [[Volstead Act]], forbade the manufacture, sale, or trade of liquor in the United States.<ref name="USCG Cutter" /> However, [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]], which was in effect from 1920 to 1933, did not stop the demand for alcoholic beverages, and the Coast Guard was put in charge of stopping [[Smuggling|smugglers]] along the coasts.<ref name="NSA CCH Aug 2020" />   [[Rum-running|Bootleggers]] and smugglers brought [[liquor]] and [[narcotic]]s into the U.S., as well as items that would be heavily taxed if imported openly, such as perfume, jewels, and even pinto beans.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

The smugglers used encrypted [[Morse code]] radio messages extensively to conduct their operations.<ref name="Unit387-Memo-1943">{{cite book| url= https://archive.org/details/HistoryOfOP20GU|title=History of OP-20-GU (Coast Guard Cryptanalytic Unit)| last1= Jones| first1=Leonard T.|date=16 October 1943| publisher=Unit 387, Coast Guard Cryptanalytic Unit| format= Memorandum}}</ref> In response, the Coast Guard hired Elizebeth Friedman, who had quit her job in 1922, on a temporary basis to decode their backlog of messages.<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|133-134}} Eventually, she and a small team of cryptanalysts she trained led the effort against international smuggling and drug-running.<ref name="NSA CCH Aug 2020" /> 

While early codes and ciphers were very basic, their subsequent increase in complexity and resistance to solution was important to the financial growth of smuggling operations. The extent of sophistication posed little problem for Friedman; she mounted successful attacks against simple [[substitution ciphers|substitution]] and [[transposition cipher]]s, as well as the more complex ciphers which eventually came into use.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

In 1927, the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Prohibition and of Customs established a joint effort with the [[U.S. Coast Guard]] Intelligence Division to monitor international smuggling, drug-running, and criminal activity domestically and internationally.<ref>{{Cite web| url= https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/historical-figures-publications/publications/pre-wwii/assets/files/rumrunners.pdf| title= Listening to the Rumrunners:Radio Intelligence During Prohibition| last= Mowry| first=David P.|date= 2014|website=NSA.gov | publisher = | accessdate = }}</ref> From 1927 to 1939, the unit, which was of critical importance, was folded into the U.S. Coast Guard.

Friedman solved the bulk of intercepts collected by Coast Guard stations in San Francisco and Florida herself. In June 1928, she was sent to teach C.A. Housel, stationed with the Coordinator of the Pacific Coast Details, how to decrypt rumrunners' messages.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Code Breakers| last=Kahn| first=David| publisher= Scribner| year= 1996| isbn= 9780684831305|pages=802–09}}</ref> Under her teaching, Housel was able to decode 3,300 messages within 21 months. In October and November 1929, she was then recruited in [[Houston, Texas]], to solve 650 smuggling traffic cases that had been subpoenaed by the United States Attorney. In doing so, she decrypted 24 coding systems used by smugglers.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing| last= Kahn| first= David| publisher=Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc.| year= 1967| location =New York |pages=803}}</ref> Friedman's work was responsible for providing decoded information that resulted in the conviction of the narcotics-smuggling [[Edward Isaac Ezra|Ezra Brothers]].<ref name= ALifeInCode-2017>{{cite book| last1= Smith| first1=G. Stuart|title=A Life in Code: Pioneer Cryptanalyst Elizebeth Smith Friedman| date= 2017| publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc.| location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=978-1-476-66918-2| oclc= 963347429}}</ref>

While working for the U.S. Coast Guard, the Bureau of Narcotics, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Bureau of Prohibition and Customs, and the Department of Justice, Friedman solved over 12,000 coded messages by hand in three years, resulting in 650 criminal prosecutions.<ref name="USCG Cutter" /><ref name="NSA CCH Aug 2020" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing|last=Kahn|first=David|publisher=Macmillan Co. Inc.| year= 1967| location=New York |pages=806}}</ref> One of the individuals Friedman helped to indict was [[Al Capone]].<ref name="Time2021">{{cite magazine| last= Haynes|first=Suyin|url=https://time.com/5928583/elizebeth-friedman-codebreaker/?linkId=108924659| title=How America's 'First Female Cryptanalyst' Cracked the Code of Nazi Spies in World War II—and Never Lived to See the Credit| magazine=Time |date= January 11, 2021|access-date=January 12, 2021}}</ref>

In 1930, Friedman proposed creating a team of seven people to handle the increasing workload involved in decrypting messages. Her proposal was finally approved in 1931, and she was put in charge of the only codebreaking unit in America ever to be managed by a woman.<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|139-141}} She recruited and trained the analysts, and by the end of 1932, had developed the best radio intelligence team in the country.<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|141-142}} This allowed her to address new, atypical systems as they appeared and expedited the entire process from initial analysis through to solution. It also allowed her to stay one step ahead of the smugglers.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}} "Our office doesn't make 'em, we only break 'em," said Friedman to a visitor who tried to sell her code-making assistance. The [[National Security Agency|NSA]] notes that she did "break 'em" many times over a variety of targets. Her successes led to the conviction of many violators of the Volstead Act.<ref name=NSA-HallOfHonor-ElizebethSFriedman-1999 />

In addition to her cryptanalytic successes, she often testified in cases against accused parties. She appeared as an expert witness in 33 cases and became famous as a result of newspaper and magazine articles about her.<ref name="NSA CCH Aug 2020" /> The messages she deciphered enabled her to implicate several smugglers in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Pacific Coast. She testified in cases in [[Galveston]] and [[Houston]] in Texas. In 1933 she was a star witness at the [[New Orleans]], Louisiana, trial of 23 suspected agents of the Consolidated Exporters Corporation.<ref name="WaPost-Elizebeth-Obit-1980" /> Her testimony resulted in the convictions of five of the ringleaders, who were directly linked with smuggling vessels as a result of her analysis.<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|143-146}}

The next year she helped settle a dispute between the Canadian and U.S. governments over the true ownership of the sailing vessel ''[[I'm Alone]]''.<ref name=AJIL-ImAlone-1935>{{cite journal|title=Claim of the British Ship "I'm Alone" v. United States |journal=The American Journal of International Law|date=April 1935| volume=29|issue=2|pages=326–331| doi= 10.2307/2190502|issn=0002-9300 |oclc= 5545373404 |jstor= 2190502|s2cid=246008667 }}&nbsp;{{closed access}}</ref> The vessel was flying the Canadian flag when it was sunk by {{USCGC|Dexter|1925|6}} for failing to heed a "[[Heaving to|heave to]] and be searched" signal. The Canadian government filed a $350,000 suit against the U.S., but the intelligence gleaned from the twenty-three messages decoded by Friedman indicated ''de facto'' U.S. ownership just as the U.S. had originally suspected. The true owners of the ship were identified and most of the Canadian claim was dismissed.<ref name=URochester-RBSCP-ImAlone-1968>{{cite journal| last1= Skoglund| first1=Nancy Galey|title=The "I'm Alone Case" A Tale from the Days of Prohibition| journal=University of Rochester Library Bulletin|date=Spring 1968|volume=XXIII|issue=3|url=https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/1004|publisher=Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation, [[University of Rochester]]|location=Rochester, New York |language=en}}</ref>

The Canadian government sought Friedman's help in 1937 with an opium-smuggling gang, and she eventually testified in the trial of Gordon Lim and several other Chinese. Her solution to a complicated unknown Chinese enciphered code, in spite of her unfamiliarity with the language, was key to the successful convictions.<ref name="NYTimes-Elizebeth-Obit-1980" />

===World War II===
During World {{nowrap|War II}}, Friedman's Coast Guard unit was transferred to the Navy, where they were the principal U.S. source of intelligence on [[Operation Bolívar]], the clandestine German network in [[South America]]. Prior to the Japanese [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] that brought the U.S. into the war, there was concern that Germany could eventually attack the U.S. via Latin America. The Nazi authorities also saw Latin America as a potential opportunity to outflank the U.S. While the [[FBI]] was given responsibility for countering this threat, at the time, the one U.S. agency with staff experienced in detecting and monitoring clandestine spy transmissions was the Coast Guard, due to its earlier work against smugglers,<ref name=Unit387-Memo-1943 /> and Friedman’s team was its sole cryptoanalytic asset.

Friedman’s team remained the primary U.S. code-breakers assigned to the South American threat, and they solved numerous cipher systems used by the Germans and their local sympathizers, including three separate [[Enigma machine]]s. According to cables between Britain's Bletchley Park and Washington, D.C. at the time, the two organizations exchanged solutions. The Bletchley Park section that solved the spy Enigmas was known as ISK, Intelligence Service Knox, and the American section was the Friedman's Coast Guard Cryptanalytic Unit 387. The two sections worked independently and ended up solving the machines around the same time.<ref name="CG 387-Bletchley">{{cite web |title=Coast Guard Unit 387 and Bletchley Park Liaison |url=https://archive.org/details/CoastGuardUnit387andISKLiaison |website=archive.org |access-date=5 April 2022 |language=English |date=1944}}</ref> One turned out to be an unrelated Swiss network, but the other two were used by [[Johannes Siegfried Becker]] (codename: ’’Sargo’’), the SS agent who headed the operation, to communicate with Germany. Regarding Becker, biographer [[Jason Fagone]] states: “Elizebeth was his nemesis. She successfully tracked him where every other law enforcement agency and intelligence agencies failed. She did what the FBI could not do.”<ref name="Time2021" /> After the spy ring was broken, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile broke with the [[Axis powers]] and supported the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]].<ref name="Time2021" />

Over the course of the war, Friedman’s team decoded 4,000 messages sent on 48 different radio circuits.<ref name= fagone2017 />{{rp|197–202}} The work of Friedman's Unit 387 (Coast Guard Cryptanalytic Unit) was often in support of the FBI and [[J. Edgar Hoover]], and was not always credited.<ref name=Unit387-Memo-1943 /> In fact, Friedman was irritated by the "sloppiness" of the FBI,<ref name="Time2021" /> for example in rounding up spies in South America, thus alerting the Nazis that their codes had been broken.<ref name= fagone2017 />{{rp|243-247}} At the end of World War II, Hoover began a public media campaign claiming that the FBI led the code-breaking effort that resulted in the collapse and arrest of the German spy network in South America. This effort included a story in ''The American Magazine'' titled "How the Nazi Spy Invasion Was Smashed" and a publicity film called ''The Battle of the United States.'' Neither mentioned Friedman or the Coast Guard.<ref name= "Time2021" /><ref name= fagone2017 />{{rp|299–300}}

In 1944, Friedman helped convict [[Velvalee Dickinson]] for having attempted to send information to Japan.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/nyregion/answers-to-questions-about-new-york.html|title=Answers to Questions About New York| last= Pollak|first=Michael|date=2013-04-26|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-02-19|language=en-US| issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Known as the "Doll Woman," her antique doll shop was her cover as she corresponded with Japanese agents using the names of women from her business correspondence. Her messages contained encoded material addressing naval vessel status in [[Pearl Harbor]].<ref name= ":0" /> The messages were decoded by Friedman and helped convict Dickinson.

After World {{nowrap|War II}}, Friedman became a consultant to the [[International Monetary Fund]] and created communications security systems for them based on [[one-time tape]]s.<ref name=kahncodebreakers />{{rp|286}}

=== Retirement ===
After retirement from government service, Friedman and her husband, who had long been Shakespeare enthusiasts, collaborated on a manuscript, ''The Cryptologist Looks at Shakespeare'', eventually published as ''The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined.''<ref name= ShakespeareanCiphersExamined-1957>{{cite book| last1= Friedman| first1=William F.|last2= Friedman| first2=Elizebeth S.|title=The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined: An Analysis of Cryptographic Systems Used As Evidence That Some Author Other Than William Shakespeare Wrote the Plays Commonly Attributed to Him|date=1957|publisher=Cambridge University Press| location= Cambridge| language=en|oclc=718233}}</ref> It won awards from the [[Folger Shakespeare Library]] and the [[American Shakespeare Theatre]] and Academy. In this book, the Friedmans dismissed [[Baconian theory|Baconians]] such as Gallup and [[Ignatius Donnelly]] with such technical proficiency and finesse that the book won far more acclaim than did others that addressed the same topic.<ref name= NYTimes-FolgerShakespeareExhibit-2015>{{cite news|last1=Grimes|first1=William|title='Decoding the Renaissance,' at the Folger Shakespeare| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/arts/decoding-the-renaissance-at-the-folger-shakespeare.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=3 February 2015}}</ref>

The work that Gallup had done earlier for Col. Fabyan at Riverbank operated on the assumption that Bacon wrote Shakespeare and used the [[bi-literal cipher]] he invented in the original printed Shakespeare folios, employing "an odd variety of typefaces." The Friedmans, however, "in a classic demonstration of their life's work," buried a hidden Baconian cipher on a page in their publication. It was an italicized phrase which, using the different type faces, expressed their final assessment of the controversy: "I did not write the plays. F. Bacon."{{citation needed |date=September 2017}} Their book is regarded as the definitive work, if not the final word, on the subject. Ironically, it was the Riverbank effort to prove Bacon wrote Shakespeare that introduced the Friedmans to cryptology.

Following her husband's death in 1969,<ref name=EveningStar-WilliamFriedman-Obit-1969>{{cite news|title=William Friedman Dies; Broke Japanese Code|url=http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2015/03/Xerox3088.pdf|work=[[The Washington Star|The Evening Star]]|date=3 November 1969|page=B-7|access-date=September 27, 2017|archive-date=July 29, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160729141111/http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2015/03/Xerox3088.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=NYTimes-WilliamFriedman-Obit-1969>{{cite news|title=William Friedman Dies; Broke Japanese Code; Truman Gave Cryptanalyst Highest Civilian Award; Marshall Said Work Saved Many American Lives| url= https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/11/03/79433021.pdf| work= The New York Times |date=2 November 1969|language=en}}&nbsp;{{Open access}}</ref> Friedman devoted much of her retirement life to compiling a library and bibliography of his work.<ref name="NYTimes-Elizebeth-Obit-1980" /> This "most extensive private collection of cryptographic material in the world" was donated to the [[George C. Marshall Foundation#The Facility|George C. Marshall Research Library]] in [[Lexington, Virginia]].<ref name=WaPost-Elizebeth-Obit-1980>{{cite news |last1= Joyce| first1= Maureen| title=Elizebeth Friedman Dies, Cryptanalyst, Pioneer in the Science of Code-Breaking| url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1980/11/02/elizebeth-friedman-dies-cryptanalyst-pioneer-in-the-science-of-code-breaking/22925d09-9535-4d4c-bcf7-73447f910d90/|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=2 November 1980}}</ref> In 1971, she donated her own papers, which are now known as The Elizebeth Smith Friedman Collection at the Marshall Foundation.<ref name="fagone2017" />{{rp|336-337}}<ref name="Marshall ESF Collection">{{cite web |title=The Elizebeth Smith Friedman Collection |url=https://www.marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2014/06/Friedman_Elizabeth.pdf |website=The George C. Marshall Foundation |access-date=27 August 2022}}</ref>

Friedman belonged to civic organizations such as the [[League of Women Voters]] and worked on behalf of [[District of Columbia statehood movement|   statehood for the District of Columbia]]. She was also a respected public speaker.<ref name="fagone2017" />{{rp|330}}<ref name="Marshall ESF Collection" />

== Personal life ==
The rare spelling of her name (it is more commonly spelled "Elizabeth") is attributed to her mother, who disliked the prospect of Elizebeth ever being called "Eliza."<ref name=NSA-HallOfHonor-ElizebethSFriedman-1999 /><ref name=":1" />

In 1917, Friedman married [[William F. Friedman]], who later became a cryptographer credited with numerous contributions to cryptology, a field to which she introduced him.<ref name=NSA-CenterForCryptologicHistory-FriedmanLegacy-2006>{{cite book|last1=Gaddy|first1=David (foreword)|last2=Rowlett|first2=Frank (foreword)|last3=Callimahos|first3=Lambros|last4=Chiles|first4=James R.|editor1-last=Center for Cryptologic History|title=The Friedman Legacy: A Tribute to William and Elizebeth Friedman|date=1 January 2006|publisher=Center for Cryptologic History, NSA|url=http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/book/software-engineering-and-development/cryptography/01120100002si|oclc=601637108}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

They had two children, Barbara Friedman (later Atchison, 1923-2021), and John Ramsay Friedman (1926–2010).<ref name=AmericanWomen-WhosWho-1935>{{cite book|editor1-last=Howes|editor1-first=Durward|title=American Women: The Official Who's Who Among the Women of the Nation (1935–36)|date=1935|publisher=Richard Blank Publishing Company|location=Los Angeles, CA|page=193|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015046813831;view=1up;seq=265;size=175}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bostonglobe/obituary.aspx?pid=145611711|title=John Friedman Obituary |date=2010-09-26|website=legacy.com / Boston Globe Obituaries|access-date=2017-11-08}}</ref>

In the 1930s, William Friedman began to show signs of the depression that afflicted him for the rest of his life. Elizebeth supported him and began covering up for him.<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|150-151}} In January 1941 he was admitted to the Neuropsychiatric Section at [[Walter Reed Army Medical Center|Walter Reed General Hospital]] in Washington, DC, where he spent two and a half months in a mental ward. His condition was deemed to be anxiety due to overwork on a top secret project.<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|218-222}} After the war, Elizebeth spent more and more of her time taking care of her husband. In April 1955, he suffered his first heart attack. His health continued to worsen, and he died on November 2, 1969.<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|330-334}}

Elizebeth Friedman died on October 31, 1980, in the Abbott Manor Nursing Home in [[Plainfield, New Jersey]], at the age of 88.<ref name=WaPost-Elizebeth-Obit-1980/> She was cremated and her ashes spread over her husband's grave at [[Arlington National Cemetery]].<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|338}}<ref name=Elonka-ArlingtonNationalCemeteryGrave-2017>{{cite news|last1=Dunin|first1=Elonka|author-link=Elonka Dunin|title=Cipher on the William and Elizebeth Friedman tombstone at Arlington National Cemetery is solved|url=http://elonka.com/friedman/FriedmanTombstone.pdf|work=Elonka.com|date=17 April 2017}}</ref>

== Posthumous recognition ==

Friedman's contributions received increasing recognition after her death. Friedman had signed an oath with the U.S. Navy promising to keep her role in World War II secret until her death, and she did so. It was not until 2008 that the documents were finally declassified.<ref name= "Time2021" />

* In 1999, the year of its creation, she was inducted to the [[NSA Hall of Honor]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/historical-figures-publications/hall-of-honor/Article/1623028/elizebeth-s-friedman/|title=Elizebeth S. Friedman — 1999 Hall of Honor Inductee|access-date=2019-04-06}}</ref>

* The NSA auditorium, which had been named after William in 1975, was renamed in 1999 the "William and Elizebeth Friedman Auditorium."<ref name="NSA CCH Aug 2020" />

* In 2002 NSA's OPS1 building was dedicated as the William and Elizebeth Friedman Building during the Agency's 50th Anniversary Commemoration.<ref name="NSA CCH Aug 2020" />

* On June 17, 2014, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms named its national headquarters auditorium after Elizebeth Smith Friedman.<ref name="NSA CCH Aug 2020" />  

* In 2017, after spending three years researching information about the Friedmans in their personal papers and declassified U.S. and British government files, Jason Fagone published a biography entitled ''The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America’s Enemies''.<ref name= fagone2017/>{{rp|xiii-xiv}}

* In April 2019, the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] passed a resolution "Honoring the life and legacy of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, Cryptanalyst".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Resolution%20Honoring%20Elizebeth%20Smith%20Friedman.pdf|title=Resolution|website=wyden.senate.gov}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senate-passes-wyden-fischer-resolution-recognizing-wwii-codebreaker-elizebeth-friedman|title=Senate Passes Wyden-Fischer Resolution Recognizing WWII Codebreaker Elizebeth Friedman|date=2019-04-02|website=wyden.senate.gov|access-date=2019-04-06}}</ref>

* On July 7, 2020, the U.S. Coast Guard announced that it was naming the 11th [[Legend-class cutter|Legend-Class National Security Cutter (NSC)]] in honor of Elizebeth Smith Friedman. According to the announcement, "Legend-Class cutters honor women and men who have a legendary status in the Coast Guard's rich history."<ref name="USCG Cutter">{{cite web |title=Eleventh National Security Cutter Named for Elizebeth Smith Friedman |url=https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCG/bulletins/293c4ec |website=U.S. Coast Guard |access-date=March 31, 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Construction began in May 2021 of the {{USCGC|Friedman|WMSL-760}}.<ref>{{cite web|title=Huntington Ingalls Industries begins fabrication of National Security Cutter Friedman (WMSL 760)|url=https://newsroom.huntingtoningalls.com/releases/huntington-ingalls-industries-begins-fabrication-of-national-security-cutter-friedman-nsc-11|date=May 11, 2021|publisher=Huntington Ingalls Industries|accessdate=July 11, 2021}}</ref>

* ''The Codebreaker,'' an episode of the television documentary series ''[[American Experience]]'' about Elizebeth Smith Friedman's life, based on Fagone's biography plus archival letters and photographs, premiered on January 11, 2021.<ref name="Time2021" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Gazit |first1=Chana |title=American Experience: The Codebreaker |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12599258/ |website=IMDb |access-date=2 April 2022 |date=11 January 2021}}</ref>

* In October 2021, Amy Butler Greenfield published her biography ''The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life''.<ref name="Goodreads">{{cite web |title=The Woman All Spies Fear |url=https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56364344-the-woman-all-spies-fear |website=www.goodreads.com |access-date=3 April 2022}}</ref>

== Works and publications ==
* Friedman, William F. and Friedman, Elizebeth Smith ''Methods for the Reconstruction of Primary Alphabets,'' [[Riverbank Publications|Riverbank Publication]] Number 21, 1917<ref>{{cite web |last1=Friedman |first1=William F. |title=Methods for the Solution of Ciphers, Publications 15-22 |url=https://www.marshallfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Methods_II_watermark.pdf |website=Marshall Foundation |publisher=Riverbank Laboratories, Department of Ciphers |access-date=3 April 2022 |pages=4, 279–292 |date=1918}}</ref>
* {{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Leonard T.|last2=Friedman|first2=Elizebeth|title=History of Coast Guard Unit 387 (Cryptanalytic Unit), 1940-1945|access-date=8 April 2022|date=1945|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration|url=https://archive.org/details/HistoryOfCoastGuardUnit387}}
* {{cite book|last1=Friedman|first1=William F.|last2=Friedman|first2=Elizebeth S.|title=The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined: An Analysis of Cryptographic Systems Used As Evidence That Some Author Other Than William Shakespeare Wrote the Plays Commonly Attributed to Him|date=1957|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|language=en|oclc=718233}}

== See also ==
{{Portal|Biography|History|United States}}
<!-- Please keep entries in alphabetical order & add a short description [[WP:SEEALSO]] -->
* [[Cryptography]]
* [[Edward Isaac Ezra]]
* [[Velvalee Dickinson]]
<!-- please keep entries in alphabetical order -->

==References==
{{source-attribution|[https://www.nsa.gov/About-Us/Current-Leadership/Article-View/Article/1623028/elizebeth-s-friedman/ Cryptologic Hall of Honor: Elizebeth S. Friedman]}}
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Leonard T.|title=History of OP-20-GU (Coast Guard Cryptanalytic Unit)|date=16 October 1943|publisher=Unit 387 (Coast Guard Cryptanalytic Unit)|url=https://archive.org/details/HistoryOfOP20GU|format=Memorandum}}
* {{cite book|last1=Crawford|first1=Tony|last2=Biribauer|first2=Lynn|last3=Friedman|first3=Elizebeth Smith|title=Elizebeth Smith Friedman Interviews|date=4 June 1974|publisher=[[George C. Marshall Foundation]]}}
** [http://marshallfoundation.org/library/audio/tape-01-interview-with-elizebeth-friedman/ Tape #1: Orientation to the Friedman Collection], [http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2015/04/Transcript-tape-1-ESF-Interviews-June-4-1974.pdf Tape #1 transcript] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818224553/http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2015/04/Transcript-tape-1-ESF-Interviews-June-4-1974.pdf |date=August 18, 2016 }}
** [http://marshallfoundation.org/library/audio/tape-02-interview-with-elizebeth-friedman/ Tape #2: History of the Friedmans] [http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2015/04/Transcript-tape-2-ESF-Interviews-June-4-1974.pdf Tape #2 transcript] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818224854/http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2015/04/Transcript-tape-2-ESF-Interviews-June-4-1974.pdf |date=August 18, 2016 }}
** [http://marshallfoundation.org/library/audio/tape-03-interview-with-elizebeth-friedman/ Tape #3: The Chinese Cipher], [http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2015/04/Transcript-tape-3-ESF-Interviews-June-5-1974.pdf Tape #3 transcript] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421123043/http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2015/04/Transcript-tape-3-ESF-Interviews-June-5-1974.pdf |date=April 21, 2016 }}
** [http://marshallfoundation.org/library/audio/tape-04-interview-with-elizebeth-friedman/ Tape #4: Contents and Use of the Friedman Collection], [http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2015/04/Transcript-tape-4-ESF-Interviews-June-5-1974.pdf Tape #4 transcript] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818224950/http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2015/04/Transcript-tape-4-ESF-Interviews-June-5-1974.pdf |date=August 18, 2016 }}
** [http://marshallfoundation.org/library/audio/tape-05-interview-with-elizebeth-friedman/ Tape #5: Fabyan, Riverbank, and the Bilateral Cipher], [http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2015/04/Transcript-tape-5-ESF-Interviews-June-6-1974.pdf Tape #5 transcript] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818225125/http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2015/04/Transcript-tape-5-ESF-Interviews-June-6-1974.pdf |date=August 18, 2016 }}
* {{cite book|last1=Friedman|first1=Elizebeth Smith|last2=Valaki|first2=Virginia T.|title=Elizebeth Smith Friedman|date=11 November 1976|publisher=[[National Security Agency]] Center for Cryptologic History Oral History Program}}
* {{cite book|last1=Sheldon|first1=Rose Mary|title=The Friedman Collection: An Analytical Guide|date=2014|url=http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2014/09/Friedman_Collection_Guide_September_2014.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211106201729/http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2014/09/Friedman_Collection_Guide_September_2014.pdf |archive-date=November 6, 2021 }}
* {{cite book|last1=Lyle|first1=Katie Letcher|last2=Joyner|first2=David|title=Divine Fire: Elizebeth Friedman, Cryptanalyst|date=2015|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform|location=Middletown, Delaware|isbn=978-1-508-54512-5|language=en|oclc=931090888}}
* {{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=G. Stuart|title=A Life in Code: Pioneer Cryptanalyst Elizebeth Smith Friedman|date=2017|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc.|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn=978-1-476-66918-2|oclc=963347429}}
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V00ODQAAQBAJ&q=A+Life+in+Code:+Pioneer+Cryptanalyst+Elizebeth+Smith+Friedman|title=The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies|last1=Fagone|first1=Jason|date=2017|publisher=Dey St., William Morrow|isbn=978-0-062-43048-9|location=New York|language=en|oclc=1004424640|author-link=Jason Fagone}}
*[http://marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2014/09/Friedman_Collection_Guide_September_2014.pdf The Friedman Collection: An Analytical Guide] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211106201729/http://www.marshallfoundation.org/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2014/09/Friedman_Collection_Guide_September_2014.pdf |date=November 6, 2021 }}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Elizebeth Smith Friedman}}
* {{cite archive |collection-url= http://marshallfoundation.org/library/collection/elizebeth-smith-friedman-collection/#!/collection=84 |collection= Elizebeth Smith Friedman Collection |institution= [[George C. Marshall Foundation]] |accession= 237 LL }}
* [https://ancexplorer.army.mil/publicwmv/#/arlington-national/search/results/1/CghGcmllZG1hbhIJRWxpemFiZXRo/ ANC Explorer]
*[https://www.pbs.org/video/the-codebreaker-dcbakk/ PBS American Experience The Codebreaker]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedman, Elizebeth}}
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