Because the material in Box 3, folder 3 includes Confidential Health Information (CHI) as defined by Columbia University policies governing data security and privacy, access is allowed only under the terms of Archives and Special Collections’ Access Policy to Records Containing Confidential Health Information.
Correspondence, biographical materials, financial records, memorabilia, reprints, diplomas and certificates, and photographs documenting the life and career of Columbia University professor of ophthalmology Maynard C. Wheeler.
History and Biography
Ophthalmologist. Maynard C. Wheeler was born in 1903 in Fargo, N.D. to Dr. Ernest and Anita Funk Wheeler. His father, a physician specializing in ear, nose and throat aliments, soon relocated the family to Tacoma, WA where Wheeler attended the local schools. He did a post-graduate high school year at Phillips Exeter in 1920-21 and then attended Dartmouth College, 1921-1924. Deciding upon medicine as a career he transferred to Stanford, graduating in the pre-medical program in 1926. He transferred to the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1927 where he received his medical degree in 1929. In 1938 he was awarded the Doctor of Medical Science degree from Columbia.
After an internship at New York City’s French Hospital in 1929-30, Wheeler served a residency in ophthalmology at Presbyterian Hospital’s Eye Institute, part of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, from 1930 to 1933. He remained at the Medical Center for his entire career becoming Attending Ophthalmologist in 1951 and Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at Columbia in 1952. Wheeler was Chief of the Eye Clinic at the Eye Institute, 1946-62.
Wheeler served as Secretary-Treasurer, 1948-1960, and President, 1964, of the American Ophthalmological Society. He was the author of The American Ophthalmological Society: The First Hundred Years (1964); The Eye Institute in New York: An Intimate History (1969); and Ocular Motility (1970).
Wheeler married Martha Boynton in 1929; they had two children. He died April 24, 1979 in Waterbury, CT.
Organization
Correspondence, biographical materials, financial records, memorabilia, reprints, diplomas and certificates, and photographs documenting the life and career of Maynard C. Wheeler.
The bulk of the papers consists of letters to his parents, 1911, 1920-1949, largely while he was a student at Exeter, Dartmouth, Stanford, and the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, but also covering his years as an intern at French and Presbyterian Hospitals, 1929-1933. There is also correspondence relating to his education and professional activities, 1926-1948, and his publications.
Of special interest is material connected to his role as ophthalmologist to Herbert Hoover. Included are letters, medical records, an oral history Wheeler gave to the Hoover Presidential Library, and material connected to Wheeler’s stay at Bohemian Grove in 1960 as Hoover’s guest.
In addition, there are letters and printed material Wheeler collected to aid him in writing his history, The Eye Institute in New York (1969), and photographs of him, his family and various academic and professional activities.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
Gift of his son, Maynard B. Wheeler, M.D., 2014 (acc.#2014.006); 2018 (acc. #2018.003)
Papers largely processed by the donor; some additional work done, and the finding aid written, by Stephen Novak, 2014.
A copy of Maynard Cattron Wheeler, M.D., 1903-1979: The Life of a New York City Ophthalmologist by his son, Maynard B. Wheeler, was removed from the papers and has been cataloged and added to Archives & Special Collections’ M-Collection. See CLIO for more information.