page_title: William Coffin Coleman
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: William Coffin Coleman / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of three men standing in front of the Baptist chapel car Evangel in Wichita, Kansas after new lighting was installed on it. Pictured are W.C. Coleman and two workmen who installed the lighting; William Coffin Coleman was the inventor of the Coleman Lantern.
context_page_description: William Coffin Coleman was a businessman, the American founder of the Coleman Company, a maker of camping equipment, and a politician. He served as the Mayor of Wichita, Kansas from 1923 to 1924.
context_section_description: Coleman was born in Chatham, New York in 1870. His parents moved the family to Labette County, Kansas in 1871, and in 1881 his father died. William started earning money by selling small goods as a child. 
  After he got older, he became a salesman, a good entry position for someone with limited education but much energy.
   
  While he was selling typewriters in Alabama, Coleman saw a lantern that used gasoline instead of kerosene. He switched his sales to lanterns, believing these would be useful. He began to craft his own lantern, which he marketed as the Coleman Arc Lamp. 
  In 1901 Coleman married Fanny Sheldon and they moved to Wichita, Kansas. They had two children: Sheldon and Clarence Coleman. 
  Coleman also developed what he called the G.I. pocket stove, in addition to the gasoline lamp.  The business was now called the Coleman Lamp and Stove Company. after two decades in Wichita, Coleman entered politics, joining the Republican Party. He was elected as mayor of Wichita for one two-year term, serving 1923 through 1924. 
  Coleman died in Wichita, Kansas on November 2, 1957 from a heart attack. He is buried in Old Mission Mausoleum, Wichita, Kansas.
caption: Coleman with two of his employees standing in front of a Baptist railroad chapel car in Wichita, Kansas (1911).
exif: {}