Renaissance man George W. Headley’s art books and jewelry on display at Lexington museum
Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history - some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.
Jan. 8, 1908: George W. Headley, founder of the Headley-Whitney Museum in Lexington, is born. Headley was an American jewelry designer having collaborated between the 1920s and 1960s with Salvador Dali and Cartier, among others. Born in Lynchburg, Va. to a wealthy family, he attended school in New York and Paris to study art.
In the 1940s, Headley opened his own jewelry boutique in the luxurious Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles. He became known for his original jewelry designs and his “bibelots” (pronounced bib-loh), small, ornate, decorative objects. His accounts from that boutique show his customers included many Hollywood stars and their wives, including Douglas Fairbanks, Gary Cooper, the Marx Brothers, Vincent Minelli, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, and Fanny Brice.
He married Barbara Whitney Henry Peck, daughter of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art. After a career in New York and Los Angeles, Headley and his wife moved to the family farm, La Belle, in Lexington.
There, he had two rooms, the Library Room and the Jewel Room, specially designed to hold his extensive collection of art books and jewelry pieces. The rooms were turned into the Headley-Whitney Museum of Art in 1968.
The museum now includes the Bibelot and Jewel Room, the Library Collection, the Shell Grotto, the Whitney Estate Dollhouses, and the Marylou Whitney Garden. Headley died on Feb. 7, 1985, at the age of 77.
This story was originally published January 10, 2025 at 7:48 AM.
