Provenance
Descended in the Wheeler family as part of the house built by the Reverend Joseph Wheeler (1735–1793); probably to his son Theophilus Wheeler (1764–1840); to his son Henry M. Wheeler (1795–1840); to his daughter Mrs. Henrietta L. P. Aiken (1839–1921); and to her son Charles A. Aiken (1872–1965).

References
Wheeler Mansion 1885, 2

Wheeler 1903, 378–79.

Worcester Houses 1919, 5, 6.

Little 1952, 20, 28, 29, 135.

Dresser 1954, 24, 25.

Worcester News Bulletin, supplement, 19, no. 8, S I (May 1954): ix, x.

"In the Museums," Antiques 66, no. 2 (August 1954): 128.

Reutlinger 1975, 29–30.

Teitz 1979, 36–37.

Exhibitions
American Primitive Painting, organized in recognition of the publication of Rainbow on the Road, a historical novel by Esther Forbes, Worcester Art Museum, February 21–April 4, 1954.

The Colonial Epoch in America, Worcester Art Museum, April 18, 1975–January 4, 1976, cat. pp. 29–30.

American Art from the Collection of the Worcester Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, April 27–June 24, 1979, cat. pp. 36–37.

Notes
1. This painting also has been published as Overmantel from the Wheeler House (Dresser 1954, 25); and Overmantel from the Reverend Joseph Wheeler House, Worcester (Reutlinger 1975, 29).

2. Identification of the wood is based on a scientific analysis of the cell structure by dendrologist R. Bruce Hoadley, January 5, 2000.