She worked at the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was a close acquaintance of James Henry Emerton.

Elizabeth was born to a wealthy Boston family and attended Radcliffe College.

Her work included collections care of the wet specimens as well as taxonomic research.

She officially retired from the museum in 1950 but continued to work on the spider collections until her death.

[3] After her death, a memorial written by her colleague and friend, Elisabeth Deichmann, described her as having a proper sedate exterior that hid a youthful spirit.