Ever since Linda Nochlin published her groundbreaking article questioning “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” (ArtNews [January 1971]: 22–39), scholars have sought to understand and to change the sociocultural forces that shaped an all-male history of art. One of the first steps in that process was to recover from obscurity the lives and art of creative women, an aspect of feminist scholarship that continues with the publication of Candace Wheeler: The Art and Enterprise of American Design, 1875–1900. While never entirely lost from sight, Wheeler’s place in art history has not previously been so well defined or so surely secured. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Candace Wheeler combines an extensive biography with a catalogue of some of Wheeler and her contemporaries’ art, a technical essay on her materials, and a concise chronology of her life. By placing her in the context of a late-nineteenth-century women’s art movement that sought to promote and professionalize women’s creative work, the biography not only explores Wheeler’s life, but also sheds light on women’s art education, the changing role of traditional women’s art forms-particularly needlework-and the rise of interior decoration as a profession. Wheeler provided leadership...