Mary C. Wheeler

Mary Colman Wheeler as a young woman

Mary Colman Wheeler (May 15, 1846–March 10, 1920) was the founder and first head of the Wheeler School in Providence, Rhode Island.

She was born in Concord, Massachusetts, on May 15, 1846. She graduated from Concord High School and Abbot Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. She started teaching mathematics and Latin at a Concord public school and moved to Providence in 1868 to teach at a finishing school.^[1] In the 1870s, she traveled to Europe to study art. She returned to Providence in 1882 to teach painting to women. ^[2] 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.^[1] She and the young women who accompanied her leased a property next to Claude Monet in Giverny, and became dinner companions of the Monet family.^[2]

Wheeler died on March 10, 1920 after falling on an icy street.^[2] She is buried at Author's Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord.^[3]

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