Born: 26 October 1903, United States
Died: 7 April 1991
Country most active: United States, Sri Lanka, Indonesia
Also known as: NA
The following is republished from the Central Intelligence Agency. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Born to Swiss immigrant parents in New York City in 1903, Cora Du Bois became interested in anthropology while earning a M.A. in history from Columbia University. Cora then traveled to the American Southwest to pursue further research in anthropology—studying several Native American tribes in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.
Being a restless soul, her intellectual curiosity and dedication to research would eventually take her to Alor, a remote island off the coast of Indonesia, where she immersed herself deeply into the study of the local people and their culture. Her fieldwork focused on how the perception of behavior differs cross-culturally, and it wasn’t long before her work was noticed by legendary OSS Analyst, William Langer.
In 1944, the OSS reached out to Cora, and she agreed to join to help with the war effort.
During the war, Cora became the OSS area expert on Indonesia. Her management skills along with her dedication to research and analysis resulted in her promotion to Chief of Research & Analysis in the Southeast Asia Command. That assignment would take her to Kandy, Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka) where Cora and her team provided vital information for the planning and execution of many OSS operations in Southeast Asia.
What Cora didn’t know was that she’d soon meet someone who would change her life forever.
A Life-changing Meeting in Ceylon: Enter Jeanne Taylor
Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1912, Jeanne Taylor always dreamed of being an artist. She followed her dream while studying at the St. Paul School of Art and the Art Students League of New York.
During the 1930s, she was a supervisor for the Index of American Design for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) working in graphic design.
In 1944, while serving in OSS, Jeanne was sent to Ceylon as a graphics designer. And that is where she first met Cora. The two became an inseparable pair while working closely together, and they soon fell in love.
After the war, the couple stayed together in New York City, where Jeanne worked in graphic design and Cora continued her academic work in anthropology.
In 1953, Cora was informed that she had been awarded the Harvard-Radcliffe Zemurray Professorship, a position granting her full professorship with tenure in Arts and Sciences—the first of its kind to be offered to a female faculty member at Harvard.
Cora and Jeanne would remain loving lifelong companions. Cora passed away in 1991, and Jeanne, one year later in 1992.