Elizabeth Derr Jacobs (1903 – May 21, 1983) was an anthropologist specializing in the native cultures of the Pacific Northwest.
Born in 1903 as Elizabeth Louise Derr in Heron, Montana, she grew up near Clark Fork, Idaho and earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1930.
She returned to Seattle and to her University of Washington anthropologist-husband Melville Jacobs, whom she had married on January 3, 1931.
During the summer of 1933, she accompanied Melville on his yearly field research trip among the Indians of western Oregon.
[1] A reviewer of one of her texts says,Working with her extraordinarily able Nehalem Tillamook consultant Clara Pearson, Jacobs recorded extensive ethnographic and folkloric materials that far surpass in quality and quantity the Tillamook research of previous investigators.