Kemper’s Birds
Claude Kemper grew up on a 150 acre farm on Tanner Creek Road in Gilmer County. For more than a quarter of a century, he took pleasure hand-carving birds that he knew and loved as a child. Kemper carved all of his birds from basswood, then mounted them on driftwood collected from WV lake shores. As his carvings grew in popularity, orders began to backlog for three or four years. In 2000, Claude Kemper donated a complete collection of his 45 hand-carved and painted West Virginia birds, featuring a one-of-a-kind centerpiece titled “Feathers of Yellow.” Housed on the second floor of GSC’s Robert F. Kidd Library in lighted cases, the gallery is now the only complete collection of Claude’s birds on public display. Some collectors will never have a complete collection, as Kemper passed away in 2003.
The GSC collection is displayed in specially designed cases made of local, wild, cherry wood.
