While still in her teens, Laura Wheeler determined to leave Hartford for study at the Portrait of Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) by Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, believing that if she were to have a chance at success, it would have its genesis there. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, housed in its grand and colorful Gothic revival-styled building on Philadelphia's Broad Street, was at that time the most prestigious institution of its kind in
