Mary Cabot Wheelwright

Mary Cabot Wheelwright (October 2, 1878 – July 29, 1958) was an American anthropologist and museum founder. She established the museum which is now called Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, in 1937 along with Hosteen Klah.

Early life and family Wheelwright was born on October 2, 1878, the only child of Andrew Cunningham Wheelwright and Sarah ("Sadie") Perkins Cabot Wheelwright. She was raised in a wealthy household and the Cabot family was part of the Boston upper class. Mary's mother, Sarah, was close friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson, She was well-traveled, visiting Europe, Egypt, and California with her parents, who were "protective" and raised Wheelwright as how a friend described as "growing up in cotton wool." She devoted herself to "good works, particularly a settlement-house music school in the South End of Boston."

In 1937, Wheelwright and Klah established the House of Navajo Religion in Santa Fe. In 1977, the museum was renamed the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian.

Wheelwright wrote an autobiography, titled Journey Towards Understanding, in 1957. Ultimately, it went unpublished during her lifetime. An excerpt was published in A Quilt of Words: Women's Diaries, Letters & Original Accounts of Life in the Southwest, 1860–1960 in 1988.

In addition to traveling, Wheelwright enjoyed sailing. She spent summers on the coast of Maine and lived alone for a time in a shipmaster's cottage on Sutton Island.

Later life and death Wheelwright continued to serve as director of the museum for the rest of her life. She died on July 29, 1958 at the age of 79 in her home in Maine.