Open Collections

[Bookplate for Claude Lamont Wheeler]

Printed in black ink on greenish gray paper, the bookplate consists of a two line border surrounding the name of the owner. In the lower left corner appears the word 'No.' followed by a dotted line for the addition of a hand-written number. The number '33' has been written in ink.

Wheeler, Claude Lamont

Still Image

Owner may have been Claude Lamont Wheeler (1864-1916) best known as the editor of the New York Medical Journal. Wheeler was born in Montreal on March 5, 1864, the son of Dr. Thomas Brown Wheeler and Anne (Shaw) Wheeler, and a nephew of William Wheeler, a former Governor of the State of Rhode Island. He attended Laval University and McGill University where he graduated in medicine in 1889. After a year interning at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Ontario, he moved to the United States where he practiced medicine in Burlington, Vermont, for a short time before moving to New York City. Wheeler was an ophthalmologist with the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital and the New York Polyclinic Hospital prior to becoming assistant editor of the New York Medical Journal in 1902 and editor in 1911. An obituary in the medical journal The Lancet noted that 'While his medical knowledge was extensive, his literary gifts were even more conspicuous. He possessed the literary instinct, which was supplemented by a high degree of culture.' In addition, he was versed in several languages, had 'a fine presence, engaging manners, and great tact,' and was an amateur actor, a well-trained vocalist, and an accomplished pianist. After battling failing health for a year or more, Wheeler died of bronchial pneumonia on December 30, 1916, at the age of 52 leaving behind his wife, Agnes Mary Mitchell, and daughter, Faith Wheeler. It is unknown whether the bookplate was created in the United States or Wheeler's native Canada. Another ex libris likely owned by Wheeler is also in the Thomas Murray Bookplate Collection.
References:
1) American College of Genealogy. (n.d.). The genealogical and encyclopedic history of the Wheeler family in America. Retrieved April 4, 2012, from http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/american-college-of-genealogy/the-genealogical-and-encyclopedic-history-of-the-wheeler-family-in-america-rem/page-91-the-genealogical-and-encyclopedic-history-of-the-wheeler-family-in-america-rem.shtml
2) Dr. Claude Lamont Wheeler. (1917). The British Medical Journal, 1(2934), 411-411. Obituary. (1917). The Lancet, 189(4878), 310-313. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(01)48030-5 Obituary. (1917). Canadian Medical Association Journal, 7(2), 168-172.

RBSC Bookplates

2012

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