Maurice B. Wheeler, associate professor of Library and Information Sciences at the University of North Texas, has spent his entire career as a librarian dedicated to raising awareness of cultural diversity in library collections and information services. Wheeler earned a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, Masters degrees in Music and Library Science from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Music from Shorter College.  A nationally recognized authority on public library administration, Wheeler has worked for nearly twenty years to promote and develop African American music archives and special collections.  Most notably, he secured the personal archives of singer Roland Hayes as a gift to the Detroit Public Library, where was he at the time curator of the E. Azalia Hackley Collection. Wheeler is active nationally and internationally as a consultant, speaker, and instructor. Publications of his research include articles related to Music Information and Image Retrieval; Popular Music Imagery; and Stereotypical Depictions of African Americans in Historical Sheet Music. Forthcoming publications include a book highlighting the careers of African American opera singers. He is involved nationally as an arts advocate and has served on many local and national arts committees, grants review panels and Boards of Directors, including with the National Endowment for the Arts, Opera America/Opera for Youth, The Michigan Opera Theater, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Curator for Black Voices at the Met

Wheeler, Maurice and Guzski, Carolyn. (2019, September). "Black Voices at the Met." Exhibition Co-Curators. The Metropolitan Opera. New York: New York.

Wheeler, M. B. (2019, September). Black Voices Rise. (Liner Notes). The Metropolitan Opera. Compact Disc (CD) International release.

Wheeler, M. B. (2019, September). Mattiwilda, Dobbs. American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press.

Wheeler, M. B. (2018, December). Rudolf Bing and the Demise of Jim Crow at the Metropolitan Opera. NOTES – Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association. Volume 75, no. 2, 207-236.

Wheeler, M. B. (2011). Politics and Race in American Historical Popular Music: contextualized access and minstrel music archives.  Archival Science: International Journal on Recorded Information. Volume 11, nos. 1-2, 47-75.

Wheeler, M. B., and M. J. Venetis. (2005, October). Music Information and Image Retrieval: Assessing Online Historical American Sheet Music Collections. First Monday. Volume 10, no. 10.