Watch the Birdies
The carved and painted birds at the Wendell Gilley Museum don’t move by themselves. But some look so lifelike, you’ll expect them to.
The Wendell Gilley Museum in Southwest Harbor looks like a place a bird would feel at home. It’s walking distance from the center of the largest town on Mount Desert Island’s “quiet side,” yet it’s surrounded by trees—a fitting home to the hundreds of exquisitely carved and painted birds inside.
Wendell Gilley was a lifelong resident of Southwest Harbor. A plumber by trade, Gilley was an ardent bird hunter and started carving and painting wooden birds in the 1930s. He soon discovered he had a talent for it, and his plumbing shop began to fill up with beautiful carved and painted replicas of Maine birds.
Gilley sold some of his early efforts to Abercrombie and Fitch in New York for a song—$3.75 each—and carved decoys for local hunters. At the age of 52, his reputation growing, Gilley sold the family plumbing business to work on his art full-time.
By the 1970s, more than 100 visitors a day were dropping by the Gilley residence in the summer months to see his “bird shop.” Patrons, local residents, and carvers from across the country who admired Gilley’s work created a nonprofit organization to preserve many of his carvings. Gilley and his wife, Addie, who amassed the core of the collection over 50 years, were guests of honor at the Wendell Gilley Museum’s opening on July 12, 1981. They died within months of each other in ’83.
Today, the museum, in addition to its permanent collection of Gilley’s birds, exhibits the work of more than 60 artists from around the world. Educational programs in carving and natural history run year-round.
Getting there:
• From Ellsworth, take Route 3 onto Mount Desert Island, then take Route 102 through Somesville and into Southwest Harbor. The museum is on the corner of Route 102 and Herrick Road, just before the center of town. The free Island Explorer bus stops there between late June and Columbus Day.
• Hours vary by season; visit www.gilleymuseum.com for more information.
You must log in to post a comment.