Wilhelmina Seegmiller

Wilhelmina Seegmiller (December 6, 1866 – May 24, 1913) was a Canadian-born American author, illustrator, and art teacher, recognized as an international education leader.

[3] Walter Sargent, head of the art department of the University of Chicago, noted that Seegmiller's methods directly affected the lives of thousands of people.

Her work attracted the attention of educators, and she was appointed in 1888, Supervisor of Drawing in the public schools at Allegheny, Pennsylvania,[7] a position she held until 1892.

[13] She was invited to represent the United States at the Third International Congress for the Advancement of Drawing and Art Teaching which was held in London, in August, 1908.

The Art Association of Indianapolis appreciated the possibility of a larger field of usefulness from such cooperation, and in 1908, appointed a public school committee—Wilhelmina Seegmiller, chairman, Georgia Alexander, Louis Bacon, Calvin N. Kendall, and Mary Nicholson—with the expectation of enlarging the institution's value to the community by admitting free to the museum the teachers and pupils of the schools of the city; by providing weekly illustrated lectures; by providing the art teachers instruction in drawing and design at reduced rates; and by permitting fifty advanced pupils in drawing free instruction in the art school.

This work has grown steadily since its inception until thousands of children became constant visitors, and the John Herron Art Institute became not only a storehouse of art, but an institution of democracy supplemental to the work of the public school, forming the first illustration in the U.S. of the accomplishment of cooperation between schools and the larger use of the museum.

[5][3] Subsequently, the Indianapolis School Board established the Wilhelmina Seegmiller Memorial Scholarship fund which supported art teachers.