 Although not much is known about her childhood, she had attended Ethical Culture High School and eventually enrolled in Barnard College, where she received her A.B in economics in 1918.After graduating, she worked as a secretary on Wall Street for a year, not unusual for a female college graduate at the time.In 1919, at the insistence of a friend, she applied for the secretarial position to Franz Boas, chair of the Columbia Anthropology Department, and was immediately hired.