Wesley C. Wehr

paleobotanist and artist - composer/painter/poet

b. April 17, 1929, Everett, Washington

d. April 12, 2004, Seattle, Washington

full name Wesley Conrad Wehr

father - Conrad J. Wehr, a Texaco Company employee

mother - Ingeborg Hall, an elementary and junior high school teacher, whose parents came from Norway to settle in Stanwood, later moving to Camano Island

University of Washington, BA music 1951, MA music 1954

Affiliate Curator of Paleobotany / Geology / Paleontology, The Burke Museum, University of Washington, 1976-2004

recipient of the Paleontological Society's Harrell L. Strimple Award at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, 2003

close friend to Guy Anderson, Mark Tobey, Jay Steensma, Joseph Goldberg, George Tsutakawa and other masters of the Northwest School

expertise - Tertiary fossil plants


"Pastoral Sketches for Violin and Piano" and "Spanish Dance" 1946?

Nine songs for voice and stringed orchestra, Opus 15, 1954. Description 1 score (41 p.) Reproduced from manuscript copy ; Thesis (M.A. in Mus.) - University of Washington. Contents: Patchen, Kenneth. The sea is awash with roses.- Patchen, Kenneth. How silent are the things of heaven.- Dawson, Ernest. Envoy.- Sitwell, Edith. Song from the far country.- Roethke, Theodore. No bird awakens her.- Van Doren, Mark. I passed the sleepy ridges.- Sitwell, S. Serenade.- Anon. The bailey beareth the bell away.- Zaturenska, Marya. The silent day.

Canticle for piano and strings, op. 17, [Seattle, Carlton Music Service, 1955?] - piano quintet

The wind and the rain [for] high voice [and piano, words by William] Shakespeare, New York, Dow Music Pub. [c1959]

Abies milleri, sp. nov., from the Middle Eocene Klondike Mountain Formation, Republic, Ferry County, Washington, by Howard E. Schorn and Wesley C. Wehr, Seattle, WA : Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum, c1986 (Burke Museum contributions in anthropology and natural history, 0887-7769 ; no. 1)

Mark Tobey : a new look : Cheney Cowles Museum, Spokane, February 19-March 27, 1988, Wesley Wehr, guest curator, Spokane, Wash. : Cheney Cowles Museum, [1987]

We become what we behold, [videorecording] produced by Heron Cove ; Michael McCallum, producer-director. Olympia, WA : Heron Cove, [1990-?] Interviews and art work of Guy Anderson, Nancy Bracken, Joseph Goldberg, Marvin Oliver, George Tsutakawa, and Wes Wehr. Narration, Michael McCallum, Becka Smith ; edited by Michael McCallum. Looks at art in Southeastern Washington.

Steensma, Jay, 1941-1994 Jay Steensma : it was about painting, [curated by Wes Wehr] Bellingham, Wash. : Whatcom Museum of History and Art, 2000. Other author Wehr, Wesley, 1929- , Catalog of an exhibition held at the Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Nov. 18, 2000-February 18, 2001

The Eighth Lively Art: Conversations with Painters, Poets, Musicians, and the Wicked Witch of the West, University of Washington Press, 2000, 2nd edition 2001

Juvonen, Helmi, 1903-1985 Even in the rain it is a pleasant walk : Helmi Juvonen's letters to Morris Graves, edited by Wes Wehr, [Seattle, Wash.] : Nordic Heritage Museum, [2003]; published in connection with the exhibit, A celebration of Helmi Juvonen : 100 years, at the Nordic Heritage Museum, July 2003

The Accidental Collector: Art, Fossils and Friendships, University of Washington Press, expected Spring 2004

also author of many scientific and literary articles, including the Harvard Review, Antioch Review, and the International Journal of Plant Sciences

writings/correspondence represented in many collections, e.g., Solomon Katz papers 1927-1989, and in his own collected Papers 1902-2004, University of Washington, Seattle

a bibliography of Wes Wehr's publications by Professor Kathleen B. Pigg of Arizona State University

Paleobotany Laboratory of Kathleen B. Pigg


Wesley C. Wehr's own page

-- Wesley C. Wehr's own page, cached

Wesley Wehr obituary by Regina Hackett, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 14, 2004

"Campus friends remember the inimitable Wes Wehr," University Week, Thursday, August 19, 2004

Wesley Wehr interviewed by Regina Hackett, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 3, 2003, with portrait

Wesley Wehr oral history interview by Martha Kingsbury, Smithsonian Archives of American Art

Wesley Wehr entry at HistoryLink, Seattle Public Library

Fossil Corylopsis and other Hamamelidaceae-like leaves from the middle Eocene flora of Republic, Washington, USA. by Wesley Wehr, et al.

Wesley Wehr interviews Elizabeth Bishop

Wesley Wehr interviewed by Rebecca Brown

"The Object at Hand - Stories in Stone Read From Ancient Leaves," Wesley Wehr interviewed by William Cannon, Smithsonian

"When 'Mystic' Became Modern" by Matthew Kangas

Wesley Wehr papers at Smithsonian Archives of American Art


Tom Bolling's home page