Agnes Meyer Driscoll / Agnes Meyer Driscoll

Side A: The house at this location, 110 South State Street, was the childhood home of Agnes Meyer Driscoll (1889-1971). Known as “the first lady of naval cryptology,” her career spanned from World War I to the Cold War. Driscoll attended Otterbein University before graduating from the Ohio State University, with majors in physics, math, music, and foreign languages. During World War I, she enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a chief yeoman, the highest rank possible for a woman at the time. After the war, Driscoll rose to become the chief civilian cryptanalyst for the U.S. Navy, breaking major Imperial Japanese Navy codes prior to World War II. (Continued on other side) Side B: (Continued from other side) Before and during World War II, Driscoll’s code breaking efforts compelled the redesign of the North Carolina class of American battleships, gained advantages that would help win the Battle of Midway, and, overall, compromised Imperial Japan’s naval operations. She was also recruited to help break the German Enigma code system. After the war, Driscoll worked on projects involving the Soviet Union for the Armed Forces Security Agency, later the National Security Agency, until she retired in 1959. Known as “Miss Aggie” or “Madame X,” she is interred at Arlington National Cemetery and was inducted into the National Security Hall of Fame in 2000.