Helen Barrett Tenney worked for the Comintern apparatus in the 1930s and funnelled information to the Soviet Union on behalf of the Spanish Communists where she learned espionage tradecraft.
In 1942, Tenney worked for the New York City-based Short Wave Research, a company contracted to the Office of War Information to recruit persons knowledgeable in foreign languages.
In late summer of 1943, Tenney moved from New York to Washington, D.C. at the suggestion of Jacob Golos to obtain employment with the Spanish section of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
She moved into Mary Price's former apartment which was used as a meeting point for government employees engaged in espionage and their Soviet case handlers and couriers.
In 1998, Tenney was identified in the Venona project transcripts as code name "Muse", based on her transfer from the dismantled OSS to the Department of State.