Description: Wendell Gilley is a name well known among carvers and carving collectors. Author of The Art of Bird Carving: A Guide to a Fascinating Hobby, one of the earliest instructional books on the subject, Gilley was a pioneer in the field of decorative bird carving. By his estimate, he created “ten thousand birds of pine and paint” between 1931 and 1983. (Gilley also loved alliteration; it should be noted that most of his carvings were made of basswood.) [show more]
Description: Addie Gilley’s created an outstanding collection of her husband’s work. The carvings that Addie so wisely saved over the years became the core of the Museum’s permanent collection. Wendell and Addie were the guests of honor at the opening of the Gilley Museum on July 12, 1981. They remained active in the museum until their deaths a few months apart in 1983.
Description: Article from Audubon Adventures, volume 2, number 4 (February/March 1986). Matthew Beal and Stephen Brooks are interviewed about learning to carve at the Wendell Gilley Museum with museum artist Steven Valleau.
Description: From the 2018 Premier Edition of Cultural adventures : Acadia and Downeast Maine. Gives background information about Wendell Gilley and describes carving classes offered by the Wendell Gilley Museum. Features photos of a great horned owl carved by Wendell Gilley as well as sandpipers carved by students in the museum's carving classes.
Description: From the July 2021 issue of Down East Magazine. Describes the history and current day programming of the Wendell Gilley Museum. Resident artist Steve Valleau is featured.
Description: Catalog of an exhibition of Wendell Gilley's bird carvings held at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia from October 29, 1976 through January 9, 1977
Description: Published: Lebanon, N.H. : University Press of New England, c2009. Inscription to Nina Gormley, Museum Director, by the author on half title page.
Description: This article, titled "Capt. Black: Artist and Surgeon", describes Wendell Gilley's influence on sculptor Paul Black. It also mentions Gilley's Canada goose carved for Harry S. Truman.
Description: Lists Wendell Gilley as one of America's top craftsmen exhibiting at the Kent County Chapter of the Maryland Ornithological Society show of waterfowl and upland game bird carvings in Nov. 1965. Other carvers exhibiting included Harold Haertel.
Description: Wendell Gilley exhibits forty carvings plus carvings-in-progress at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences in the show "Down East Bird Carvings."
Description: Announcement that Wendell Gilley would be attending a bird carving exhibition in Chestertown, Maryland. The carving of a bald eagle family that he entered in the exhibit is depicted.
Description: Article from the Evening Telegram (Herkimer, N.Y.), May 17, 1967. Wendell Gilley was the featured speaker at the National Woodcarvers Association's New York chapter's second annual meeting, according to the article, which gives biographical and professional information about him.
Description: Article from the Philadelphia Inquirer's society column by Ruth Seltzer describing the preparations for the exhibit Downeast Bird Carvings by Wendell Gilley. The exhibit was held at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. The photograph accompanying the article shows Barbara Tyson, a trustee of the Academy, helping unpack the carved birds.