Albertine Randall

Albertine Randall Wheelan was born Albertine Randall in San Francisco, California, on May 27, 1863, according to a California State Library biographical index card filled out by Wheelan, and a family tree at Ancestry.com. Wheelan’s parents were Albert Gallatin Randall and Anne Augusta Frost Soule. An 1862 San Francisco directory said her father was a notary public and involved in real estate. The family tree said he passed away January 12, 1869, in San Francisco. In the 1870 U.S. Federal Census, Wheelan was the youngest of four siblings. Her mother was a housewife and her brother was a store clerk. The 1871 San Francisco Directory listed her mother with the address 911 Howard. Directories for 1873 to 1875 said the family resided at 6 Harriet. The 1880 census recorded 430 Oak in San Francisco as the address for Wheelan, her mother and siblings. According to volume 27 of the American Art Annual (1928), Wheelan was a pupil of Virgil Williams at the San Francisco School of Design. In Artists in California, 1786–1940: L–Z (2002), Edan Milton Hughes said Wheelan studied privately with William Keith. Wheelan exhibited at the Mechanics’ Institute in 1879; the San Francisco Art Association from 1887 to 1905; San Francisco Guild of Arts & Crafts, 1904; the San Francisco Sketch Club from the 1890s to 1906; and the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The San Francisco Call , May 23, 1887, reported Wheelan’s marriage. (The announcement was transcribed at San Francisco Genealogy and had the year wrong, 1886. Wheelan’s biographical index card had the date May 18, 1887. In the text below, the wedding was on Wednesday which corresponds with the 1887 calendar. In 1886 , that day was a Tuesday.) A marriage notice appeared in the Daily Alta California , May 20, 1887. On Wednesday afternoon [May 18], at the residence of the bride’s mother on Bush street, Miss Albertine Randall of this city, and Mr. Fairfax Wheelan of San Jose, were married according to the impressive rite of the Episcopal church, the Rev. Bishop Kip reading the marriage service. The home was beautifully and artistically ornamented for the happy occasion, and after the solemnization of the ceremony a wedding breakfast was served, during which many congratulations and good wishes for a happy future were offered to Mr. and Mrs. Wheelan. In the afternoon the bride and groom left on a wedding tour to the Yosemite valley. According to the 1900 census, Wheelan and her merchant husband had two sons, Edgar and Fairfax. Also in the household were Wheelan’s mother and sister-in-law. They lived in San Francisco at 1915 Baker Street. …But the earthquake and fire came, and the local atmosphere was not favorable to art. Thus did Albertine Randall Wheelan go, as do so many of our gifted ones, to New York, and there for a number of years she has devoted the major part of her time to designing costumes and sets for the David Belasco, Henry Savage, and other theatrical productions. The Book-plate Booklet , May 1908, profiled Wheelan and said: …Mrs. Wheelan has spent the past year and a half in New York City, giving her time chiefly to the designing of costumes for David Belasco’s productions. She has designed a book-plate for Mr. Belasco… The American Magazine of Art , April 1921, explained how Wheelan met Belasco. …[Wheelan] came East to do some special work for St. Nicholas Magazine. Mr. Belasco, at that time was bringing out the “Rose of the Rancho,” portraying Spanish California in the early forties. He sent his Art Director to the Century Company to ask if they knew of anyone familiar enough with California history to make costume plates, and he was referred at once to Mrs. Wheelan. The 1910 census said magazine illustrator Wheelan, her sons and sister Frances were in New York City at 9 Fort Washington Avenue. Wheelan illustrated works by Anice Terhune including Colonial Carols , Dutch Ditties , A Chinese Child’s Day and Barnyard Ballads . Wheelan illustrated The Secrets of the El