Celia and Ida Wheeler


Step into any music shop today, and you’ll find walls lined with guitars, keyboards, and digital gear. But if you were a young woman seeking to be on the cutting edge of the independent music scene in the 1890s, your instrument of choice would be a bowl back mandolin or a five string banjo.

​A cabinet card I acquired this week introduces us to a pair of Massachusetts musicians: Celia and Ida Wheeler.

​The portrait, captured at the studio of Snow & McDermott, shows the sisters posed with an air of artistic dedication.

From their Victorian attire to the dark green, scalloped-edge cardstock mount, every element of the photo fits the turn of the 20th century.

​During the 1880s and 1890s, America fell head over heels for the "BMG" (Banjo, Mandolin, and Guitar) craze. What had previously been viewed as informal folk instruments suddenly exploded into mainstream society.

​Mandolin and banjo clubs sprouted up across cities and university campuses nationwide. For young women of the era, joining a string ensemble or learning to play was considered highly fashionable, the ultimate mark of a cultured and modern individual.

​In this photograph, the girls proudly showcase their musical partnership:

  • ​Celia (on the left) : Posed with a classic bowl-back mandolin.
  • ​Ida (on the right): Holding a five-string banjo.

​​The details of Celia and Ida's childhood and later lives are a bit hazy in places. 

​Celia went on to build a family of her own, marrying Arthur Haytre Magoun in the summer of 1891 and welcoming a daughter, Louise, a couple of years later.

Ida remains a bit of a mystery, completely missing from the official census records. Whether she was missed by the census takers, recorded under an alternate name, or hidden by the loss of the 1890 federal census records, her trail has gone cold.

​Yet, the final chapter of their story is told by the photo itself. The card survived more than a century of attic clean outs and house moves. Long after the music clubs fell silent, a descendant took a pencil to the reverse side of the card, neatly writing:

​Celia & Ida Wheeler

Because of that simple act, we can look back at this photo and remember two young women who, for a brief moment, brought a beautiful partnership of strings to life.


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