Born in Concord, Massachusetts, on May 15, 1846, to Abiel Heywood Wheeler and Harriet Lincoln, she was the youngest of five children. Concord was at the time of Wheeler's early life a progressive community engaged with Transcendentalism, abolitionism, education reform, and women's rights. Her father Abiel was involved in a local Underground Railroad effort and their family provided refuge to escaped slaves on their way to Canada throughout the 1850s.[1]
Wheeler was an enthusiastic artist and took drawing lessons with her friend May Alcott beginning in 1858.[1] Notably, May was youngest sister of writer Louisa May Alcott and inspired the character of Amy March in her novel Little Women.[2]
In 1866, she started teaching mathematics and Latin at Concord High School and in 1868 moved to Providence, Rhode Island to teach mathematics at a Miss Shaw's, a finishing school.[3] In the 1870s, she traveled to Germany, Italy and France to study art, while staying in Concord and teaching intermittently in Providence.[1] She returned to Providence in 1882 to teach painting to women.[4] In 1889, she founded the Wheeler School.
In 1887, Wheeler started a practice of taking groups of students to France during the summer to learn the French language and study painting and art history.[3] She and the young women who accompanied her leased a property next to Claude MonetinGiverny, and became dinner companions of the Monet family.[4] One of these young women was the painter Louise Herreshoff.[5]
^ abcdeWilliams, Blanche E. Wheeler (2000) [1934]. Mary C. Wheeler: Leader in Art and Education. Providence, R.I.: Wheeler School. pp. 23, 35–36, 42–43, 46, 54, 57.
^Ticknor, Caroline (June 2012). May Alcott: A Memoir. Applewood Books. p. 31. ISBN978-1-4290-9312-5.
^ ab"List Detail". The Wheeler School. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
