Later in her college career, she joined the honor societyPhi Beta Kappa.[8] She obtained herAB from the University of Wisconsin.[2][9][10] She attended theUniversity 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 ofCharles Davenport andCharles Otis Whitman, she studied variation inpaper wasp coloration.[1] She earned the Latin honormagna cum laude for her dissertation work.[6] She was the first woman to earn a PhD in zoology from the University of Chicago.[12]
After she obtained her AB, Key worked as an assistant in German and biology atGreen Bay High School from 1894 to 1898.[13][14][15][16] She then attended theUniversity of Chicago and earned her PhD inzoology 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 theNew Mexico Normal University from 1903 to 1904.[17] After living in California for three years, she became a presiding teacher atBelmont College from 1907 to 1909.[12] She then became a professor of German and biology atLombard 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 theEugenics Record Office.[18][1] Afterwards, she worked briefly as an investigator at thePublic Charities Association in Pennsylvania.[21] From 1914 to 1917, she was an education director at the Pennsylvania State Training School inPolk.[21] As part of her position, she gave a talk onfeeble-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 anarchivist for three years.[21] From 1920 to 1925, she was the head of biology and eugenics research in theRace 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 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 oftuberculosis on December 2, 1906.[47][48]
^"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.
^ab"Current Topics".Argus-Leader. March 18, 1905. p. 2. RetrievedSeptember 18, 2022.
^Enteman, Wilhelmine M. (November 1904).Coloration inPolistes. The Carnegie Institution of Washington.
^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.ASINB008FUCFUK.
^Key, Wilhelmine Marie Enteman (1920).Heredity and social fitness. Washington: Carnegie Institution.ISBN9780530833361.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
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