Description: Christmas card featuring a carved barn owl on a piece of driftwood. Signed "Addie & Wendell Gilley." Marked "Xmas 1976" on reverse side of card
Description: Christmas card featuring a carving of a family of bald eagles, the female perched on the edge of the nest of two chicks, the male on a branch above with wings spread. Marked 1969 on reverse of card
Description: Letter describes Mr. Silver's visit to Elmer Crowell's workshop where he purchased several miniature bird carvings, and his subsequent visit to Wendell Gilley's workshop. Enclosed are photographs of a greater yellowlegs and a duck carved by Crowell. Silver also describes Wendell Gilley's trip to Abercrombie and Fitch where he was inspired to start bird carving.
Description: The letter writer is asking for more information on Wendell Gilley after watching a Boston television program profiling him. She also mentions owning a Gilley carving of a mallard pair.
Description: This letter is a reply to the Gilley Museum Director's request for a garden to be donated by the Garden Club of Mount Desert. It also mentions a carving of three gulls on a driftwood based that Mrs. Bancroft commissioned from Wendell Gilley.
Description: Wendell suggests carvings he had on hand that could be photographed to illustrate his book. Birds he suggests are: bob white quail, scaled quail, flock of 7 Canada geese, pair of Wilson snipe, pair of grouse, single woodcock, several miniature birds of all types, great blue heron with trout in mouth, group of three pintails, life size eagle, pair of life size wood duck, spotted sandpiper on mussel shell, life size pileated woodpecker, pair of eagles with two babies in nest. [show more]
Description: Original letter from Byron Cheever, Publisher of North American Decoys, expressing Cheever's willingness to publish Wendell Gilley's book and asking questions about publication and printing details.
Description: Letter thanking Wendell Gilley for the loan of his carvings for the exhibit Downeast Bird Carvings by Wendell Gilley held at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Oct. 29, 1976 through Jan. 7, 1977
Description: Letter congratulating Gilley on the success of the exhibition Downeast Bird Carvings of Wendell Gilley at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. On exhibit were sixty-one carvings of birds "on display together for the first time." 34, 272 people attended the exhibit during its ten week run from October 29, 1976 to January 7, 1977.
Description: Letter discusses publishing Gilley's book in a limited edition as well as including a photograph of Gilley with an osprey as an insert. It also mentions a carving of an owl and another of a bobwhite quail on a hatchet.
Description: O'Brien acknowledges receipt of a spotted sandpiper carving from Gilley and discusses a handle Gillely designed for an X-Acto blade as well as decoy designs.
Description: Flyer advertising the Wendell Gilley Museum Benefit Art Auction and Appraisal Day, Aug. 10, 1990. Auctioned items included a framed set of prints, "20 Birds of Mount Desert Island" by Carroll Sargent Tyson.
Description: Letter describing O'Brien's sailing trip around Buckle Island, Swans Island and others and the eiders and ospreys he saw. This letter also mentions Gilley's idea for a museum.
Description: This letter praises Wendell Gilley's inventiveness, his carving and his book . O'Brien refers to a vise for holding decoys and carvings for painting that Wendell includes in the book.
Description: Photocopy from the original by Byron Cheever listing questions he had regarding publishing Gilley's book. Gilley's answers as dictated to Donal C. O'Brien, Jr. are in pencil after each question.