DOROTHY HANNAH COX (1892-1977)

 

Robert Leonard recently wrote to suggest that Dorothy H. Cox might be worth two or three paragraphs in The E-Sylum. She was known as an architect, archaeologist and numismatist. She was also a spy during the Second World War. Let's see if I can find anything more to say about her.

Dorothy H. Cox was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on February 18, 1892, the daughter of Lewis Joseph Cox (1857-1920) and Lenore Hanna (1864-1941). Lewis was affiliated with the Terre Haute Car and Manufacturing Company.

An article could be written about Mrs. Lewis J. Cox. She was very active with the Indiana Federation of Women's Clubs. In 1912 she spoke out against woman suffrage saying that most women were not educated enough to deserve equal rights. She lost the election for their president in 1915 because it was alleged that she was a mild user of liquor and smoked cigarettes. She was listed in Woman's Who's Who of America 1914-15.

Dorothy graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1914 and received a masters degree in architecture from Columbia University in 1917.

She applied for a passport in 1917 to go to France to do Red Cross work. She worked as a nurse during the First World War while her mother was working with the Red Cross at home.

She worked as an architect and trench supervisor under Hetty Goldman at the ancient Greek cities of Eutresis and Colophon during the seasons of 1924 to 1927, sponsored by The American School of Classical Studies of Athens. Cox documented the architectural plan of the Metroon at Colophon.

Dorothy was hired to work on the coin room staff at the American Numismatic Society in 1931. She left after a year to do an excavation in Cyprus.

She was with Goldman again at excavations at Tarsus, Turkey, during 1934 to 1939. The results were published by the ANS as Numismatic Notes and Monographs 92.

Her listing in the 1940 Census is interesting. She was living with her mother, Lenore, in Cheshire, Connecticut. The profession for her mother was listed as numismatist / private college. The profession for Dorothy was blank. I suspect that was an error.

Dorothy Cox was recruited for work with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as World War II began. She was one of several trained to work as a spy under American archaeologist Rodney Young. It helped that she was fluent in French, Greek and Turkish. Young created a group called "The Greek Desk." Part of their mission was to conceal antiquities from the looting Nazis.

Cox was trained in spy-craft with such skills as cryptography. covert communications, and firearms training. She learned to identify German and American equipment. She was skilled at doing her duty without calling attention to herself. Her code name was "Hiram."

She set up an operation at Izmir, Turkey, to monitor the activities of Greek refugees, enemy deserters and other agents. Her cover was her work with the Greek War Relief Association. She supplied Greek leftist guerillas with funds and supplies in exchange for information.

Returning to Cairo, she entertained guests at her apartment and got them to talk openly about their war experiences and at times drawing maps and diagrams.

She returned to America in 1945 and took a job as curator of coins at Yale University. She retired to a Cheshire, Connecticut, farm in 1953. However, she continued to do archaeology for several seasons in the late 1950's and early 1960's.

She was an architect and excavator at sites in Kourion, Gordion and Afghanistan. Dorothy Cox wrote A Third Century Hoard of Tetradrachms from Gordion published by the University of Philadelphia in 1953.

She died in New Haven, Connecticut, in December 1977. I have not found a published obituary for her. The Social Security Death Index lists the month of her death but not the date.

Dorothy Cox wrote several of the Numismatic Notes and Monographs published by The American Numismatic Society.

The Caparelli Hoard, A Fourteenth Century Hoard from Bosnia (1931) ANS NNM 43 14 pages, 4 plates.

This described 125 medieval coins found by peasants cultivating a field near Thebes in Greece, buried about 1360 and discovered in 1930.

The Tripolis Hoard of French Seignorial and Crusader Coins (1933) ANS NNM 59 41 pages, 8 plates, 3 maps.

This describes a huge hoard of 3500 silver and billon coins believed to have been left behind by a crusader and buried about 1221 A. D. and excavated about 1929.

A Tarsus Coin Collection in the Adana Museum (1941) ANS NNM 92 67 pages, 12 plates.

About a thousand coins in the collection, mostly Roman Imperial Colonial coins, were found during excavations at Tarsus (Turkey) during 1934 to 1939.

The Coinage of Rhesaena in Mesopotamia (1946) ANS NNM 108 translated by Cox. These coins from Syria were used by Roman troops during the 3rd century A.D.

Coins from Excavations at Curium, 1932-1953 (1959) ANS NNM 145 125 pages, 10 plates.

This described Greek, Roman and Byzantine coins from the 3rd to 6th centuries found at sites at Curium (Kourion) Cyprus.

For further reading, see:
A Third Century Hoard of Tetradrachms from Gordion (https://www.penn.museum/research/publications//publication/770)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web