Charles Coleman Sellers

Charles Coleman Sellers (March 16, 1903 – January 31, 1980) was an American historian, biographer, and librarian who won the Bancroft Prize in 1970 for his biography of American painter Charles Willson Peale. Sellers was a long-time librarian at Dickinson College and also held positions at Wesleyan University and the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library.

Early life and education Sellers was born in the Overbrook neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to parents Horace Wells Sellers, an architect, and Cora (Wells) Sellers, Horace's first cousin. He was a great-grandson of Charles Willson Peale.

Career and service Sellers worked as a writer and researcher from 1927 and, together with his wife, owned and operated Tracey's Book Store in Hebron, Connecticut, from 1932 to 1938. He also acted in amateur theatrical productions and authored three plays that were produced in the 1930s and 1940s.

Sellers co-conceived a 1983 exhibition of Peale's work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He became editor of the American Colonial Painting magazine in 1959 and became an elected member of the American Philosophical Society in 1979.

Personal life On October 6, 1932, Sellers married actor and poet Helen Earle Gilbert (died February 1951). On June 12, 1952, he married Barbara Stow Roberts (died September 1979). He had two children from his first marriage: Horace Wells Sellers III and Susan Pendleton Siemanoski. He died in Sydney, Australia, while visiting his daughter there.

Publications Lorenzo Dow: The Bearer of the Word. Minton, Balch & Company. 1928. Benedict Arnold: The Proud Warrior. Minton, Balch & Company. 1930. Theophilus the Battle-Axe: A History of the Lives and Adventures of Theophilus Ransom Gates and the Battle-Axes. Patterson & White Co. 1930. The Artist of the Revolution: The Early Life of Charles Willson Peale. Feather & Good. 1939. Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale. American Philosophical Society. 1952. (Editor) Waldron Phoenix Belknap. American Colonial Painting. Belknap Press. 1959.

Charles Willson Peale: A Biography. Scribner. 1969. (Bancroft Prize, 1970) Dickinson College: A History. Wesleyan University Press. 1973. ISBN 9780819540577.