Seeking help on locating sources of female codebreakers in WWII

Dear Ms. Carr,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

We searched the National Archives Catalog and located 7 series, 145 file units & 47 items in various record groups and collections that relate to cryptology. Please note that some of the records have been digitized and may be viewed using the Catalog. For access to non-digitized records, please contact the unit listed in the description. 

We especially suggest reviewing the records located in the following series: Studies on Cryptology, ca. 1952-ca. 1994 and Historic Cryptographic Records, 1952-1981 in the Records of the National Security Agency/Central Security Service (Record Group 457), and Serial Files of the Naval Security Group Central Depository  at Crae, Indiana, ca. 1914-5/6/1981 in the Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (Record Group 38). For more information about these 3 series, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RDT2) at archives2reference@nara.gov.

Further, we searched the National Archives Catalog for any records on “codebreakers” and “code breakers.” The search results may be viewed here and here, respectively. Please note that almost all of the records have been digitized and may be viewed and downloaded using the Catalog.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of NARA staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgement as well as a substantive response to your reference request from RDT2 and other NARA reference units. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.

Additionally, we suggest reviewing a presentation by Cara Moore Lebonick titled World War II Code Girls: What’s in a Name? given as part of NARA’s Know Your Records Program. Also, you may want to review the book by Liza Mundy titled Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II.

Lastly, we located some resources on female codebreakers online:

• How the American Women Codebreakers of WWII Helped Win the War available in the Smithsonian Magazine
• The Female Code-Breakers Who Were Left Out of History Books available on bbc.com
• The Little-Known Story of the Navy Women Codebreakers Who Helped Allied Forces Win WWII available on cnn.com

We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your research!