Cultivators: Sophie Lutterlough

Sophie Lutterlough (1910-2009) was an American entomologist who spent 40 years working at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. She started out as the museum’s first woman elevator operator, and eventually became an entomologist. 

 
For Further Reading: 

• Smithsonian Institute Archives: Sophie Lutterlough’s Career at the National Museum of Natural History 
• Penn State Center for Pollinator Research: Sophie Lutterlough 
• Using Data Science to Uncover the Work of Women in Science
• Sophie Lutterlough Obituary
• Sophie Lutterlough: The One Woman Information Bureau

This month, we’re talking about cultivators — women who nurtured, cross-pollinated, experimented, or went to great lengths to better understand and protect the natural world.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello. My name is Vanessa Handy. I'm a producer at
Wonder Media Network, and I'm so excited to be guest
hosting this episode of Womanica. This month, we're talking about cultivators,
women who nurtured, cross pollinated, experimented, or went to great
lengths to better understand and protect the natural world. Imagine

(00:25):
it's the nineteen forties in Washington, DC. You're walking through
the Smithsonian for the first time. There are countless exhibits
to see. Each one helps you better understand the intricacies
of the natural world and its evolution over time. There
are paintings, dinosaur fossils, and even insects. But how did

(00:45):
those specimens get into their displays? And wait, how did
you get to the upper floor of the museum? Today
we're talking about the Smithsonian's first female elevator operator, who
turned into a world class signist. She cultivated knowledge in
a literal sense by bringing outside travelers up into the

(01:06):
captivating world of the museum and helping them make new discoveries.
In a more theoretical sense, her pioneering work in the
entomology department led to the identification and preservation of many
insect specimens helping people understand a world of previously unrecognized creatures.
Let's talk about Sophie Lutterlow. Sophie was born in nineteen

(01:29):
ten in Washington, d c. While in high school, she
took a strong interest in biology and graduated near the
top of her class. But at the same time, there
were few job opportunities for black women in the field
of science. That obstacle did not deter Sophie, and she
persistently looked for work. In nineteen forty three, she applied

(01:52):
for a curation job at the Smithsonian National Museum of
Natural History. She was offered a job, just not the
one she expected. The museum didn't hire her to research,
likely because she was a black woman. Instead, they employed
her as the museum's first female elevator operator. If Sophie

(02:12):
did well, the museum promised they would hire more women
to operate the elevators. Talk about pressure, but she succeeded.
At least two more women eventually got hired for the job.
Elevators in the early nineteen hundreds were more complex than
their modern day counterparts. They required an operator to control

(02:32):
the speed and ensure the car ended up landing aligned
with the right floor. The operator also needed to have
a complete knowledge of the building's tenets and history. To
gain that knowledge, Sophie spent her lunch breaks exploring the
other floors, soaking up every detail of the different exhibits.
At the time, the museum didn't have an information desk

(02:53):
or docents to assist guests, and they would often ask
Sophie about the displays, so she made her mission to
become a one woman information bureau. One day in nineteen
fifty seven, doctor J. F. Gates Clark, an insect curator,
took a ride in her elevator. Sophie took the opportunity
to ask was there any work for her in the department.

(03:19):
There was. After fourteen years of working as an elevator operator,
Sophie had a new title insect preparator. Her tasks sorting
and preparing large quantities of insects. There was just one problem.
She knew very little about entomology. So Sophie did what

(03:40):
she did best. She studied. She spent hours pouring over
entomological textbooks. She cross referenced pictures and descriptions with what
she was looking at in her microscope. After two years
of training and hard work, Sophie was appointed as a
research assistant to another insect curator. New job was to

(04:00):
restore and classify myriapods, which include centipedes, millipedes, and other
insects with many feet. There are roughly thirteen thousand species
in total. Again, Sophie committed herself to the work, taking
college courses in science, writing and German to bulk up
her knowledge on the job. No challenge was too large

(04:20):
or microscopic for Sophie. Once she had to rescue and
restore a collection of about thirty five thousand ticks that
had dried out in storage. She also helped the curator
discover forty type specimens, which are the reference specimens that
help scientists create descriptions for new species. In nineteen seventy nine,

(04:42):
scientists named a mite after her in her honor. Sophie
spent forty years working for the Smithsonian, twenty six of
those as an entomologist. She retired from the museum in
nineteen eighty three, earning the Smithsonian's Exemplary Service Award. She
said her the greatest challenge in retirement would be quote

(05:02):
getting used to not coming to work at this wonderful institution.
Sophie's work laid the foundation for future insect research, though
she didn't get a lot of credit for it, and
as a black woman, she could have been locked out
of a job in science entirely. In two thousand and eight,
just a year before Sophie's death, there were still only

(05:24):
eight registered black entomologists out of more than one thousand
in the US, and as recently as twenty sixteen, only
about two percent of all entomology graduate students in the
US are black. After her retirement, Sophie spent her time
attending church and singing as a soprano in their choir
until her death on February eleventh, two thousand and nine.

(05:47):
She was ninety eight years old. All month, we're talking
about cultivators. For more information, find us on Facebook and
Instagram at Womanica Podcast. Thanks to co creators Jenny and
Liz Kaplan for having me as a guest host. Talk
to you tomorrow.