Monroe Wheeler

Monroe Wheeler (13 February 1899 – 14 August 1988) was an American publisher and museum coordinator.

Monroe Wheeler
Portrait by George Platt Lynes
Born13 February 1899
Evanston, Illinois, US
Died14 August 1988
New York City, US
NationalityAmerican
OccupationMuseum curator and publisher
Partner(s)Glenway Wescott

Life

Wheeler was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1899. He met Glenway Wescott who was to be friend or partner for the rest of their lives in 1919. In the 1920s Wescott and Wheeler were working in Germany and France.[1]

With an inheritance from his family, Wheeler bought a small printing press, and with Barbara Harrison, established Harrison of Paris, specializing in limited-edition books; they published in total thirteen books, including two works by Wheeler's partner, Glenway Wescott. In 1934 they moved the press to New York City. The last book published by Harrison of Paris was Hacienda by Katherine Anne Porter.[2]

In 1935 Wheeler was employed by New York's Museum of Modern Art. He was on the Library Committee and in three years he was Director of Membership and the following year Director of Publications. In 1940 MOMA created the role of Director of Exhibitions and Wheeler was the first person to hold the post. In 1944 he became one of MOMA's Trustees and later he sat on the Executive Committee, the Exhibitions Program Committee, and also the Coordination Committee. After the war in 1948, Wheeler was leading the Exhibitions and Publications, the outreach programs and the library.[1][3]

For over ten years, photographer George Platt Lynes had a relationship with Wheeler and Glenway Wescott.[4] Both Paul Cadmus, Conversation Piece (1940),[5] then Jared French, Glenway Wescott, George Platt Lynes and Monroe Wheeler[6] made a triptych portrait of Wheeler, Wescott and Platt Lynes. When We Were Three: The Travel Albums of George Platt Lynes, Monroe Wheeler, and Glenway Wescott, 1925-1935 was published in 1998.[7] Another of Wheeler's lovers was Christian William Miller.[8]

When Lloyd Wescott, Glenway's brother, moved to a farm in Union Township in 1936, Wescott, Wheeler and Lynes took over one of Lloyd's farm's houses and named it Stone-Blossom.[9] In 1959, when Lloyd Wescott acquired a farm near Rosemont in Delaware Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, Glen Wescott moved into a stone house named "Haymeadows" on his brother's land.[9]

In 1987, Glen Wescott died of a stroke at home.[10] Wheeler died in New York City in 1988, but his ashes were buried with Wescott and this latter family at Haymeadows.[11][9]

References
  1. "Monroe Wheeler Papers in The Museum of Modern Art Archives". The Museum of Modern Art Museum Archives. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  2. "Harrison of Paris Records" (PDF). Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.hop. Text copied from Barbara Harrison Wescott, see that page for attribution
  3. Robertson, Nan (December 5, 1961). "Modern Museum Is Startled by Matisse Picture". The New York Times.
  4. Limnander, Armand (5 March 2009). "Landed Gent". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  5. Saltz, Jerry (April 8, 2019). "A Radical New History of Queer Modernism, 1933–1950". Vulture.
  6. Rolle, Elisa (December 17, 2014). "Jared French & Paul Cadmus".
  7. When We Were Three: The Travel Albums of George Platt Lynes, Monroe Wheeler, and Glenway Wescott, 1925-1935. Arena Editions. 1998. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  8. Leddick, David (2015). Intimate Companions: A Triography of George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, Lincoln Kirstein, and Their Circle. Macmillan. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  9. Rosco, Jerry (2002). Glenway Wescott Personally. University of Wisconsin Press.
  10. "Glenway Wescott, 85, Novelist and Essayist". The New York Times. February 24, 1987. Retrieved April 4, 2008.
  11. "Monroe Wheeler, Board Member Of Modern Museum, Is Dead at 89". The New York Times. August 16, 1988. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
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