[1] Talcott began her field work in archaeology in 1930 when she took part in excavations at the ancient Greek city of Corinth.

[1][2] In this capacity, she designed a system for organizing, recording, storing, and cross-referencing the many thousands of objects recovered from the Agora.

[2] After a hiatus caused by World War II, Talcott returned to the Athenian Agora excavations in 1947 and stayed for a further 11 years.

[1] Talcott became an expert in ancient Greek painted pottery and published her research in the journal Hesperia.

With fellow archaeologist Brian A. Sparkes, she wrote the two-volume study Black and Plain Pottery of the 6th, 5th, and 4th Centuries B.C.