Wilhelmine Marie Key
Born
Wilhelmine Enteman

(1872-02-22)February 22, 1872
Hartford, Wisconsin, U.S.
DiedJanuary 31, 1955(1955-01-31) (aged 82)
Everett, Washington, U.S.
Resting placeVillage of Hartland Cemetery, Wisconsin, U.S.
43°06′06″N 88°21′31″W / 43.10176°N 88.35858°W / 43.10176; -88.35858
Other namesMinnie
Education
SpouseFrancis B. Key (1876–1906)
Scientific career
FieldsGenetics, Eugenics
Institutions
ThesisColoration of Polistes (the common paper wasp) (1901)
Doctoral advisorCharles Otis Whitman
Other academic advisorsEdward Ashael Birge, Charles Davenport
Notable studentsSewall Wright

Wilhelmine "Minnie" Marie Enteman Key (February 22, 1872 – January 31, 1955) was an American geneticist. She was the first woman to gain a PhD in zoology from the University of Chicago, where she studied coloration in paper wasps. She contributed to the study of eugenics and was an influential teacher to Sewall Wright.

Early life and education

Key was born in Hartford, Wisconsin, in 1872.[1][2] She was the fourth child of Katherine E. Noller and Charles John Enteman.[3] In her childhood she studied wasps.[4][5] At the age of 16 she enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[6] While there, she assisted Edward Asahel Birge in his study of Lake Mendota.[1] In her sophomore year she became the class second vice-president.[7]

Later in her college career, she joined the honor society Phi Beta Kappa.[8] She obtained her AB from the University of Wisconsin.[2][9][10] She attended the University of Chicago supported by a fellowship.[11] As an adult, she retained her childhood interest in studying wasps, and even kept some as pets.[4][5] While under the supervision of Charles Davenport and Charles Otis Whitman, she studied variation in paper wasp coloration.[1] She earned the Latin honor magna cum laude for her dissertation work.[6] She was the first woman to earn a PhD in zoology from the University of Chicago.[12]

Academic career and research

After she obtained her AB, Key worked as an assistant in German and biology at Green Bay High School from 1894 to 1898.[13][14][15][16] She then attended the University of Chicago and earned her PhD in zoology in 1901.[9][11] She briefly remained at the University of Chicago as an assistant until 1902.[1] Afterwards, she became the head of the German and Nature Study department at the New Mexico Normal University from 1903 to 1904.[17] After living in California for three years, she became a presiding teacher at Belmont College from 1907 to 1909.[12] She then became a professor of German and biology at Lombard college from 1909 to 1912[13][18] where she mentoredSewall Wright.[19] They continued a correspondence throughout their lives.[20]

From 1912 to 1914, Key worked as a eugenics field worker at the Eugenics Record Office.[18][1] Afterwards, she worked briefly as an investigator at the Public Charities Association in Pennsylvania.[21] From 1914 to 1917, she was an education director at the Pennsylvania State Training School in Polk.[21] As part of her position, she gave a talk on feeble-mindedness.[22] She also completed her seminal work "Feeble-minded Citizens in Pennsylvania," which was used to recommend appropriation from the Pennsylvania state legislature to isolate feeble-minded women from the population to prevent the spread of feeble-mindedness.[23]

Later, Key worked as an archivist for three years.[21] From 1920 to 1925, she was the head of biology and eugenics research in the Race Betterment Foundation.[24] While there, she gave lectures[25] including topics "Hereditary and Human Fitness,"[26] "The Comparative effect on the Individual Heredity and Environment",[27] "Heredity and Personality",[28] "Are we better than our forefathers?",[29] "Our Friends, the Trees",[30] and "Heredity and Eugenics".[31] She spoke at the Battle Creek Garden Club on the importance of trees.[32][33]

Outside of work, Key gave addresses to the Auxiliary Luncheon and the local Woman's League on the topic of "Are the Fathers and Mothers of Today Equal to the Fathers and Mothers of Yesterday?"[34][35] Finally, she worked as a private researcher from 1925 until her death in 1955.[21] Some of her time was spent on the advisory board of a new arts center in Florida built by the Woman's History Foundation.[36][37]

Key in 1939

Works

  • Some Observations on the Behavior of the Social Wasps (1902)[38]
  • Coloration in Polistes (1904)[39]
  • Feeble-minded Citizens in Pennsylvania (1915)[40]
  • Heredity and social fitness (1920)[41]
  • Race and Family in the History of American Institutions (1934)[42]
  • Fake heredity in fiction[21][24]
  • Differential Fertility in Old Colonial Families (1935)[43]

Personal life

Key married cartoonist Francis Brute Key.[12][44][45] They married in Los Angeles at the Church of Angels on June 23, 1906.[46] Shortly after their marriage, Key's husband died of tuberculosis on December 2, 1906.[47][48]

Later life and legacy

Key died of a cerebral hemorrhage on January 31, 1955, while on a visit to see family in Everett, Washington.[24][49][50] She is buried in Village of Hartland Cemetery in Hartland, Wisconsin.[51] She bequeathed the majority of her estate to fund a lecture series for human genetics at the American Genetic Association which bears her name.[52] The remaining portion went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison to fund scholarships for research.[53]

Awards and achievements

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 WRIGHT, SEWALL (September 1, 1965). "Dr. Wilhelmine Key". Journal of Heredity. 56 (5): 195–196. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a107413. ISSN 1465-7333. PMID 5323812 – via Oxford Academic.
  2. 1 2 The University of Wisconsin alumni directory, 1849–1919. The University of Wisconsin. 1916. p. 96.
  3. ↑ "Wilhelmine Enteman", United States census, 1880; Hartland, Waukesha, Wisconsin; page 25, line 6, enumeration district 260, National Archives film number T9-1451. Retrieved on September 18, 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Current Topics". Argus-Leader. March 18, 1905. p. 2. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  5. 1 2 "Woman Who Makes Pets of Wasps". Daily Arkansas Gazette. October 22, 1904. p. 4. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  6. 1 2 "Biology Her Forte". New York Tribune. July 16, 1901. p. 7. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  7. ↑ "Class Day at the University". Wisconsin State Journal. April 19, 1890. p. 4. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  8. ↑ Morgan, Bayard (1917). PHI BETA KAPPA, Alpha of Wisconsin Catalogue. The University of Wisconsin. pp. 63, 69, 86, 98.
  9. 1 2 The University of Wisconsin Alumni Directory 1849–1911. The University of Wisconsin. 1912. p. 120.
  10. ↑ "U.1894 Class Group to Join Half-Century Club". The Capital Times. p. 3. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  11. 1 2 "Zoology Department". The University of Chicago Photographic Archive. 1901. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  12. 1 2 3 "Engagement of Cartoonist". The Los Angeles Times. December 31, 1905. p. 56. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  13. 1 2 Catalogue of Lombard College. Galesburg, Illinois: The Asgard Press. 1907. pp. 16, 19, 34, 42.
  14. ↑ "The Visitors and Visited". Green Bay Weekly Gazette. September 5, 1894. p. 6. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  15. ↑ "List of Teachers". Green Bay Press-Gazette. July 1, 1896. p. 1. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  16. ↑ "Many are Teaching". Portage Daily Democrat. November 12, 1897. p. 1. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  17. ↑ "New Faculty". Las Vegas Daily Optic. July 16, 1903. p. 1. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  18. 1 2 Crow, J. F. (September 1, 2004). "The Wilhemine E. Key 2003 Invitational Lecture: Genetics: Alive and Well. The First Hundred Years as Viewed Through the Pages of the Journal of Heredity". Journal of Heredity. 95 (5): 365–374. doi:10.1093/jhered/esh061. ISSN 0022-1503. PMID 15388764.
  19. ↑ Lescouflair, Edric. "The Life of Sewall Wright". Harvard Square Library.
  20. ↑ Crow, James F. (Winter 1982). "Sewall Wright, the Scientist and the Man". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. Johns Hopkins University Press. 25 (2): 279–294. doi:10.1353/pbm.1982.0034. PMID 6752867. S2CID 27605074 – via Project MUSE.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 Cattell, Jaques, ed. (1949). American Men of Science: A Biographical Directory (8th ed.). Lancaster, Pennsylvania: The Science Press. p. 1342.
  22. ↑ "Feeble-Mindedness Problem Discussed". The Pittsburgh Press. December 4, 1916. p. 5. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  23. ↑ "State Care of Feeble Minded Real Economy". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. May 10, 1915. p. 6. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  24. 1 2 3 4 "Dr. Key, 82, Resident of Somers, Dies". Hartford Courant. p. 9.
  25. ↑ "Sanitarium Program". Battle Creek Enquirer. December 4, 1923. p. 13. Retrieved September 17, 2022.
  26. ↑ "Sanitarium Program". Battle Creek Enquirer. April 18, 1922. p. 5. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  27. ↑ "Sanitarium Services". Battle Creek Enquirer. June 24, 1922. p. 6. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  28. ↑ "Week-End Program". Battle Creek Enquirer. September 21, 1922. p. 2. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  29. ↑ "Of Local Interest". Battle Creek Enquirer. July 11, 1924. p. 5. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  30. ↑ "To Talk on Trees". Battle Creek Enquirer. July 18, 1924. p. 10. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  31. ↑ "Week's Program". Battle Creek Enquirer. January 2, 1923. p. 11. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  32. ↑ "Battle Creek Garden Club". Battle Creek Enquirer. October 16, 1925. p. 13. Retrieved September 17, 2022.
  33. ↑ "Members of Garden Club Heart Dr. Wilhelmine Key". Battle Creek Enquirer. October 20, 1925. p. 9. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  34. ↑ "Auxiliary Luncheon Served". Battle Creek Enquirer. May 10, 1924. p. 5. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  35. ↑ "The Woman's League". Battle Creek Enquirer. March 12, 1925. p. 6. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  36. ↑ "Expected to Be Mecca". The Tampa Times. March 13, 1926. p. 14. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  37. ↑ Seigrist, Mary (April 11, 1926). "Artist Colony is Projected as Memorial". The Miami News. p. 15. Retrieved September 17, 2022.
  38. ↑ Enteman, Minnie Marie (August 1902). "Some Observations on the Behavior of the Social Wasps". Popular Science Monthly. 61: 339–351 – via Wikisource.
  39. ↑ Enteman, Wilhelmine M. (November 1904). Coloration in Polistes. The Carnegie Institution of Washington.
  40. ↑ Key, Wilhelmine E. (1915). FEEBLE-MINDED CITIZENS IN PENNSYLVANIA. Public charities association of Pennsylvania. Publication No. 16. Empire Building, Philadelphia: The Public Charities Association of Pennsylvania. ASIN B008FUCFUK.
  41. ↑ Key, Wilhelmine Marie Enteman (1920). Heredity and social fitness. Washington: Carnegie Institution. ISBN 9780530833361.
  42. ↑ Key, Wilhelmine E. (1934). A Decade of Progress in Eugenics. Baltimore: The Williams & Wilkins Company. pp. 175–182.
  43. ↑ Harmsen, Hans; Lohse, Franz (1935). Bevölkerungsfragen. Berlin. pp. 527–528.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  44. ↑ "Exhibition by a Local Artist". Los Angeles Herald. March 20, 1906. p. 9. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  45. ↑ "Key Art Exhibit". Los Angeles Evening Express. March 20, 1906. p. 6. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  46. ↑ "At Church of the Angels". Los Angeles Herald. June 24, 1906. p. 12. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  47. ↑ "Francis Key is Dead in Chicago". Los Angeles Evening Post-Record. December 3, 1906. p. 2. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  48. ↑ "Obituary". The Inter Ocean. December 6, 1906. p. 5. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  49. ↑ "Death Certificate of Wilhelmine Key". familysearch.org. January 31, 1955. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  50. ↑ "Somers". Hartford Courant. January 28, 1955. p. 3. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  51. ↑ "Village of Hartland Cemetery in Hartland, WI burials list: Mason Kerr ... Anna Kupke | People Legacy". peoplelegacy.com. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  52. ↑ "Announcement from the American Genetic Association". BioScience. 15 (7): 494. July 1965. JSTOR 1293485 – via JSTOR.
  53. ↑ "$1.4 Million Grants Accepted for Research in Medicine". Wisconsin State Journal. September 8, 1957. p. 6. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  54. ↑ "Kirkwood". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. September 22, 1935. p. 14. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  55. ↑ "Local Women Attend National Conference". Battle Creek Enquirer. p. 12. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  56. ↑ "Racial Improvement Topic of Convention". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. August 26, 1935. p. 16. Retrieved September 19, 2022.


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