Lathrop began her studies in 1918 with Solon Borglum, first at the Art Students League in New York, and then, in 1920-21, at Borglum's own school of sculpture. She spent 1923 traveling throughout Europe extending her artistic knowledge. Her final formal study was in 1925 when she spent the summer working with Charles Grafly in Gloucester, Massachusetts. But Lathrop's reputation as an animalier began to develop even before she had completed her training. She first had her work accepted in an Academy annual exhibition in 1921 and admiration for her work began to grow rapidly soon after. She enjoyed a long and successful career.
She specialized in the sculpting of small animals, both wild and domesticated, but also worked in portraiture. In the field of medallic sculpture, she designed the 18th Issue of the Society of Medalists in 1940, and the Brookgreen Gardens Medal in 1947. Among her public works are the World War Memorial Flag Pole for Memorial Grove; and the Leonard Woods Richardson Memorial Tablet at the New York State College for Teachers, both in Albany, New York.
Among Lathrop's many awards were four presented by the Academy: the Barnett Prize in the winter exhibition of 1928; the Shaw Memorial Prize in the winter exhibition of 1931; the Speyer Memorial Prize in the annual exhibition of 1936; and the Saltus Medal in the annual of 1970. She exhibited a bust of her mother, Ida Pulis Lathrop, in the Academy annual of 1935.
Lathrop was a member of the National Sculpture Society, the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, and the Society of Medalists.
