Sophie Lutterlough (1910–2009) was an American

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

. Lutterlough began working at the Smithsonian

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

(NMNH) as an elevator operator in the 1940s at a time when discriminatory hiring practices prevented African-Americans from working in a curatorial or scientific capacity at the Museum. In the late 1950s, after having gained extensive knowledge of the museum's exhibitions, she asked for and achieved a role in entomological work, eventually restoring hundreds of thousands of insects, classifying thousands. She co-identified 40 type specimens, specimens that stand as the representative example of the species. In 1979, a mite was named in her honor.

Early life and education

Lutterlough was born Sophie G. Mack in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and had two sisters and a brother. She graduated from Dunbar High School in 1928 where she took classes in biology, near the top of her class.

Career

In 1943, Lutterlough applied for a job at the Smithsonian

(NMNH). Racial barriers against African-Americans prevented her from direct employment in the museum's curatorial and science work. She was employed on a trial basis as an elevator operator - the first woman in that position at the Smithsonian - and held that position for 14 years, during which she studied the museum's exhibits on her lunch break and became "a one-women icinformation bureau" to museum visitors. It was common for people without academic qualifications in science to become scientists through training and experience at the NMNH. Lutterlough started on that path in 1957, when she asked an insect curator, J.F. Gates Clark, if she could work in his department, and gained a position as insect preparator. This had happened in 1926 for at least one other African-American, Barry Hampton, who moved from being a mail clerk to working in the Division of Reptiles and Bachtrachians, although he was still classified as a laborer. Jeannine Smith Clark worked at the NMNH as a volunteer tour guide from the late 1960s, and Margaret Collins, an African-American zoology professor at

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

, was a research associate at the NMNH from the late 1970s. There were no other African-Americans employed as scientists there in 1985. African-Americans were still greatly under-represented among entomologists in 2008, when only eight faculty members of 1,348 on U.S. websites could be identified as African-American. Lutterlough worked on identifying the NMNH's insect collection, becoming a research assistant within two years. For the next 24 years, she restored and classified many arthropods in the

Myriapoda Myriapods () are the members of subphylum Myriapoda, containing arthropods such as millipedes and centipedes. The group contains about 13,000 species, all of them terrestrial. The fossil record of myriapods reaches back into the late Silurian, a ...

group, that includes centipedes and millipedes, as well as ticks and other species. The NMNH's 1963/64 annual report, for example, reported that she restored over 300,000 ticks in the preceding year. Lutterlough took college courses in science and writing, and studied German to support her development as an entomologist. Among her achievements were restoring 35,000 ticks, enabling her and her supervisor, Dr. Ralph Crabill, to identify 40

type specimens In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes t ...

(a specimen that is the reference point for others in its species). She retired from NMNH after 40 years.

Personal life

In 1941, Lutterlough married Henry E. Lutterlough. Henry Lutterlough was a member of the

Earl Reece Stadtman Earl Reece Stadtman NAS (November 15, 1919 – January 7, 2008) was an American biochemist, notable for his research of enzymes and anaerobic bacteria. Stadtman received the National Medal of Science from President Jimmy Carter in 1979 "for seminal ...

biochemistry laboratory at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

. Lutterlough was widowed, and in 1999, she moved to live with her daughter in

Monroe Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey Monroe Township is a township in southern Middlesex County, in New Jersey, United States. It is part of the outer-ring suburbs of the New York metropolitan area. The township is also centrally located within the Raritan Valley region. As of th ...

. She was a member of the People's Congregational Church from 1960, and the first

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

in the choir. She joined the Cross of Glory Lutheran Church and its choir when she moved to New Jersey. Lutterlough died in Monroe Township on 11 February 2009, at the age of 98.

Honors

In 1979, a mite of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

'' Pygmephorus'' was named for her. '' Pygmephorus lutterloughae'' is a large mite, described from a sample in the NMNH collection (No. 3782), collected in Oregon in 1970. In 1983 when she retired from the Smithsonian, Lutterlough was honored with an Exemplary Service award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lutterlough, Sophie 1910 births 2009 deaths American entomologists African-American women scientists Women entomologists African-American biologists People from Monroe Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey Scientists from Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Institution people 20th-century American zoologists 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American scientists 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women