Orville H. Gibson (May 8, 1856 – August 19, 1918) was an American luthier who founded the Gibson Guitar Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1902, makers of guitars, mandolins and other instruments.
His earliest known instrument was a 10-string mandolin-guitar, which bears the date 1894. Gibson's mandolins were "unlike any previous flatback instrument," according to music historian Paul Sparks. His company's manufacturing standards were very high, and his instruments heavily marketed.
Early life
Orville H. Gibson was born in 1856 and on a farm near Chateaugay, Franklin County, New York. He was the youngest of five children to an English father John W. Gibson and American mother Amy Nichols Gibson from Peru, New York.
Mandolin style
Gibson began in 1894 in his home workshop in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and patented his idea for mandolins in 1898. He applied for and was granted a patent on the design. The sides too were carved out of a single block of wood, rather than being made of bent wood strips.]]
On the strength of Gibson's ideas, five Kalamazoo businessmen formed the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co., Ltd., in 1902. Within a short period after the company was started, the board passed a motion that "Orville H. Gibson be paid only for the actual time he works for the Company." After that time, there is no clear indication whether he worked there full-time, or as a consultant. Julius Bellson states in his 1973 publication, The Gibson Story, that "Orville Gibson had visions and dreams that were considered eccentric."