Lutterlough began working at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (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.

[1] Racial barriers against African-Americans prevented her from direct employment in the museum's curatorial and science work.

[1] She was employed on a trial basis as an elevator operator - the first woman in that position at the Smithsonian[5] - and held that position for 14 years, during which she studied the museum's exhibits on her lunch break and became "a one-women [sic] information bureau" to museum visitors.

[1] 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.

[1] For the next 24 years, she restored and classified many arthropods in the Myriapoda group, that includes centipedes and millipedes, as well as ticks and other species.

[2] Lutterlough took college courses in science and writing, and studied German to support her development as an entomologist.

[4] Henry Lutterlough was a member of the Earl Reece Stadtman biochemistry laboratory at the National Institutes of Health.

Lutterlough was widowed, and in 1999, she moved to live with her daughter in Monroe Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey.