Headley-Whitney Museum

Stop by this eclectic museum in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Headley-Whitney Museum was founded by George W. Headley and his wife Barbara Whitney in 1968, and the complex was completed in the 1970s after the Shell Grotto was added to the compound. The Shell Grotto room has walls covered in shells and a coral slab floor. It is full of hundreds of shells and fossils and also features a mosaic ceiling. Headley designed jewelry and bibelots (pronounced: "bib-low" - French for knickknack). Bibelots are small, ornate, and intricately crafted objects, often made of gems and precious metals. One room at the museum is filled with a library of his 1,500 art books and his personal collection of bibelots.

George Headley was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, and he studied in New York at the Art Students League. He also studied in Paris and apprenticed with Paul Flato, the New York Jeweler. Headley opened a jewelry boutique in the 1940s located in the Bel-Air hotel that catered to the Hollywood elite. George W. Headley returned to the family farm in Lexington in 1949 to help his aging parents. He met and married his wife in Lexington and continued to live there for the rest of his life. 

The Headley-Whitney Museum hosts traveling art exhibits, workshops, and special events throughout the year. During your visit, walk outside around the grounds to look at their exquisite water fountain. Situated among Bluegrass farms and rolling hills, this museum is a gem.