Elizabeth Derr Jacobs (1903 – May 21, 1983) was an

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

specializing in the native cultures of the Pacific Northwest. She is known particularly for her work on the Nehalem Tillamook, the northernmost subgroup of the Tillamook, whom she studied in the 1930s. She then turned away from anthropology to pursue a career as a

psychotherapist Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of Psychology, psychological methods, particularly when based on regular Conversation, personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase hap ...

, returning to anthropology after her retirement in 1975.

Life and work

Born in 1903 as Elizabeth Louise Derr in

Heron, Montana Heron is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sanders County, Montana, named for the village of Heron which is located within it. The population of the CDP was 173 at the 2020 census. The town was built in 1883 by the Northern Pacific Railroad ...

, she grew up near

Clark Fork, Idaho Clark Fork is a small town in Bonner County, Idaho. The population was 536 at the time of the 2010 census. Geography Clark Fork is situated on the Clark Fork River, on the eastern shores of Lake Pend Oreille. in the northern panhandle of th ...

and earned a bachelor's degree in English from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

in 1930. With a new focus on pre-med, she took two courses before changing her mind again. Hoping to become a psychiatrist, she attended the

University of Minnesota Medical School The University of Minnesota Medical School is a medical school at the University of Minnesota. It is a combination of three campuses located in Minneapolis, Duluth, and St. Cloud, Minnesota. The medical school has more than 17,000 alumni as of 2 ...

Duluth Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...

in 1932–1933, before her funds ran out, which caused her to leave her university studies entirely. She returned to Seattle and to her University of Washington anthropologist-husband

Melville Jacobs Melville Jacobs (July 3, 1902 – July 31, 1971) was an American anthropologist and folklorist known for his work preserving indigenous cultures and languages of the Pacific Northwest United States. Jacobs was a doctoral student of Franz Boas, a ...

, whom she had married on January 3, 1931.

Anthropology

Jacobs had no formal training in anthropology but came to it via her marriage to anthropologist

. As a result, she sometimes neglected topics of traditional interest to anthropologists, such as place names, ethnobiology, and material culture and focused on topics traditionally given less attention, particularly the lives of women. During the summer of 1933, she accompanied Melville on his yearly field research trip among the Indians of western Oregon. According to Seaburg, the "experience changed her life."A reviewer of one of her texts says,Elizabeth Jacobs worked with Clara Pearson again in 1934 for two weeks in 1934 and used that opportunity to record Pearson's collection of Nehalem myths and folktales, which resulted in ''Nehalem Tillamook Tales'', published in 1959.

Psychotherapy

In the 1940s. Elizabeth returned to the University of Washington to attend the School of Social Work. She earned her master's in psychiatric social work in 1949. Melvin died in 1971 and Elizabeth dedicated much of her later years to her work as a psychotherapist. She died in 1983.

Select publications

*''Nehalem Tillamook Tales''. (1959) University of Oregon Monographs, Studies in Anthropology No. 5. Eugene: University of Oregon Press. *French, K. S. (1960). ETHNOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY: Nehalem Tillamook Tales. Recorded by Elizabeth Derr Jacobs, edited by Melville Jacobs. *Jacobs, E. D. (2003). ''The Nehalem Tillamook: An Ethnography''. Oregon State University Press. *''The Nehalem Tillamook: An Ethnography''. (2004) Edited by William R. Seaburg. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis. *Lewis, D. G. (2007). Pitch Woman and Other Stories: Oral Traditions of Coquelle Thompson, Upper Coquille Athabaskan Indian by William Seaburg, Elizabeth D. Jacobs. ''Oregon Historical Quarterly'', ''108''(3), 490–492.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, Elizabeth Derr American women anthropologists 1903 births 1983 deaths 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American anthropologists