The son of a physician, William Lathrop spent his youth in rural Iowa and in Painesville, Ohio, where the family moved in 1864. He was interested in painting in his youth. Although largely self-taught, he studied briefly in 1874 at the Art Students League, New York, under William Merritt Chase. He then entered the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, but failed to complete the program. He returned to the Midwest to work on the family farm and teach school but is said to have been in New York in 1880 when he executed illustrations for Harper's Magazine and worked for a photo engraving company.
In 1887, with Henry Ward Ranger and Henry Bayley Snell, Lathrop visited France, the Netherlands, and England, spending his time in the more scenic, rural areas. In 1887 in the last country, he married Annie Burt.
After his return to America in 1889, Lathrop first settled in Georgetown, Connecticut, but then moved to J. Alden Weir's house in Branchville while Weir was in Europe. He lived in Greenpoint, Long Island, from 1890 through 1891, and taught art during the summers of 1897 and 1898 in the Pocono Mountains. He settled in New Hope, Pennsylvania, in 1898 and was soon joined by his friends Snell and Charles Rosen. His subtle, tonal landscapes from this period reveal the influence of French Barbizon painting. Lathrop was an active member of the community. In 1929 he began a ten year term as president of the Phillips Mill Community Association. Although he continued to painted from memory rather than en plein air, his rather spare landscapes brightened considerably as he moved towards a more impressionist palette.
Lathrop built a sailboat during the late 1920s and throughout the summers of the following decade sailed the waterways and coastline of the northern Atlantic States. He died when he was swept from his boat off Long Island during a hurricane.
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