Women in Science and Engineering at Yale (2020 Edition)

Anne Millspaugh Cooke Smith (1900–1981), Ph.D.

Photo: Whiting, 1982

Anne Cooke Smith was an anthropologist and a pioneer in applied anthropology. She earned her MA and Ph.D. from Yale University, 1937 and 1940, respectively, where she was the second woman to receive a doctorate in anthropology. Her lifelong interest was in the Native Americans of the Great Basin and Southwest, especially the Northern Ute of Utah and Colorado. She was a great believer “that political action should accompany research and scholarship” (Whiting, p. 396).