Arthur Parker Whetsel (February 22, 1905[1][2] – May 1, 1940) was an early "sweet" trumpeter for Duke Ellington's Washingtonians.

After Oscar Whetsel's death in 1906, his widow married the Reverend Lewis Charles Sheafe (1859–1938), who was the leading African American minister in the Seventh-day Adventist Church during the early twentieth century.

[5] In his teens, his family moved to Washington, D.C., where, after playing in a number of bands and stage shows, he became one of the members of Duke Ellington's first band, The Washingtonians; and was present, on July 26, 1923, in New York City when The Washingtonians, billed as Snowden's Novelty Orchestra with Elmer Snowden on banjo and saxophone, Ellington on piano, Whetsel on trumpet, Sonny Greer on drums and vocals and Otto Hardwick on clarinet made a "trial recording" at the Victor Talking Machine Company; it was Ellington's first visit to a recording studio.

He had a unique broad open tone of ample depth and sonority despite the elegant, soft quality of his muted play.

Whetsel's behavior became erratic in 1938, and after an incident where he "went haywire" during a gig at Rutgers University, he was replaced by trumpeter Wallace Jones.