{{Short description|American publisher and museum coordinator}} {{Infobox person | name = Monroe Wheeler | image = Monroe Wheeler, 1937.jpg | image_size = | caption = Portrait by [[George Platt Lynes]] (1937) | birth_name = | birth_date = 13 February 1899 | birth_place = [[Evanston, Illinois|Evanston]], Illinois, US | death_date = 14 August 1988 (aged 89) | death_place = New York City, US | known_for = | education = | employer = | occupation = Museum curator and publisher | partner = [[Glenway Wescott]] }} '''Monroe Wheeler''' (13 February 1899 – 14 August 1988) was an American publisher and museum coordinator whose relationship with the novelist and poet [[Glenway Wescott]] lasted from 1919 until Wescott's death in 1987.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=THE RELEVANT QUEER: Glenway Wescott, Novelist, Poet, Provocative Gay Marriage Pioneer |url=https://imageamplified.com/the-relevant-queer-glenway-wescott-novelist-poet-provocative-gay-marriage-pioneer-3/ |access-date=2022-08-19 |website=Image Amplified |date=11 April 2021 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
==Biography== Wheeler was born in [[Evanston, Illinois]] in 1899. He met [[Glenway Wescott]], who was his partner for the rest of their lives, in 1919. During the 1920s, Wescott and Wheeler lived and worked in Germany and France.<ref name="MoMA">{{cite web|title=Monroe Wheeler Papers in The Museum of Modern Art Archives|url=https://www.moma.org/learn/resources/archives/EAD/wheelerf|website=The Museum of Modern Art Museum Archives|accessdate=12 January 2018}}</ref>
With an inheritance from his family, Wheeler bought a small printing press, and with [[Barbara Harrison Wescott|Barbara Harrison]], established ''[[Harrison of Paris]]'', specializing in limited-edition books; they published in total thirteen books, including two works by Wheeler's partner, 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]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Harrison of Paris Records | hdl=10079/fa/beinecke.hop | url=http://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/1423.pdf | publisher=[[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]]}} Text copied from [[Barbara Harrison Wescott]], see that page for attribution</ref>
In 1935, Wheeler was employed by New York's [[Museum of Modern Art, New York|Museum of Modern Art]]. He was initially on the Library Committee and three years later he was made ''Director of Membership,'' before becoming ''Director of Publications'' in the following year. 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 [[Trustee]]s and he later sat on the Executive Committee, the Exhibitions Program Committee, and also the Coordination Committee. By 1948, Wheeler was leading the Exhibitions and Publications, the outreach programs and the library.<ref name="MoMA" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0C14FB3F581B728DDDAC0894DA415B818AF1D3&scp=3&sq=Le%20Bateau%20Matisse&st=cse|last=Robertson|first=Nan|title=Modern Museum Is Startled by Matisse Picture|newspaper=The New York Times|date=December 5, 1961}}</ref> [[File:Monroe Wheeler, 1940.jpg|thumb|Wheeler photographed by George Platt Lynes (1940)]] For over a decade, the photographer [[George Platt Lynes]] had a relationship with Wheeler and Wescott.<ref name="LandedGent">{{cite news|last1=Limnander|first1=Armand|title=Landed Gent|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/style/tmagazine/08brookesw.html|accessdate=23 August 2016|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=5 March 2009}}</ref> Both [[Paul Cadmus|Paul Cadmus']] ''Conversation Piece'' (1940),<ref>{{cite journal|title=A Radical New History of Queer Modernism, 1933–1950|first=Jerry|last=Saltz|date=April 8, 2019|url=https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/a-radical-new-history-of-queer-modernism.html|website=Vulture}}</ref> and [[Jared French]]'s ''Glenway Wescott, George Platt Lynes and Monroe Wheeler''<ref>{{cite web|title=Jared French & Paul Cadmus|url=https://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2887085.html|date=December 17, 2014|first=Elisa|last=Rolle}}</ref> made [[triptych]] portraits of Wheeler, Wescott and Lynes. ''When We Were Three: The Travel Albums of George Platt Lynes, Monroe Wheeler, and Glenway Wescott, 1925–1935'' was published in 1998.<ref>{{cite book|title=When We Were Three: The Travel Albums of George Platt Lynes, Monroe Wheeler, and Glenway Wescott, 1925-1935|date=1998|publisher=Arena Editions|isbn=9780965728041 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-NtTAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=15 March 2018}}</ref> Lynes ended his relationship with Wheeler and Wescott in 1943 to be with his studio assistant, George Tichenor.<ref name=":0" /> Another of Wheeler's lovers was the artist and model [[Christian William Miller]].<ref name="Leddick 2000">{{cite q |Q131520011 |author=Leddick, David |url=https://archive.org/details/intimatecompanio00ledd |url-access=limited |page=[https://archive.org/details/intimatecompanio00ledd/page/212/mode/2up 212]}}</ref> When [[Lloyd Wescott]], Glenway's brother, moved to a farm in [[Union Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey|Union Township]] in 1936, Wescott, Wheeler and Lynes took over one of Lloyd's farm's houses and named it ''Stone-Blossom''.<ref name=Glenway>{{cite book |title=Glenway Wescott Personally |last=Rosco |first=Jerry |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |year=2002 |isbn=9780299177300 |url=https://archive.org/details/glenwaywescottpe00rosc|url-access=registration }}</ref> 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.<ref name=Glenway/>
In 1987, Glenway Wescott died of a stroke at home.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFD6143BF937A15751C0A961948260|title=Glenway Wescott, 85, Novelist and Essayist|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 24, 1987|accessdate=April 4, 2008}}</ref> Wheeler died in New York City in 1988, but his ashes were buried with Wescott and this latter family at Haymeadows.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/16/obituaries/monroe-wheeler-board-member-of-modern-museum-is-dead-at-89.html|title=Monroe Wheeler, Board Member Of Modern Museum, Is Dead at 89|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 16, 1988|accessdate=March 11, 2018}}</ref><ref name=Glenway />
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* [[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.mwheeler|Monroe Wheeler Papers.]] Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheeler, Monroe}} [[Category:1899 births]] [[Category:1988 deaths]] [[Category:People from Evanston, Illinois]] [[Category:American art curators]] [[Category:19th-century American LGBTQ people]] [[Category:20th-century American people]]