Orville H. Gibson (1856 - August 21 1918, Chateaugay, New York) was a luthier who founded the Gibson Guitar Corporation in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1902, makers of guitars, mandolins and other instruments. Gibson began in 1894 in his home workshop in Kalamazoo, Michigan. With no formal training to limit his vision, Orville created an entirely new style of mandolin and guitar, with tops carved and arched like the top of a violin. Wikipedia
This instrument is the most elaborately ornamented scroll model mandolin made by Orville Gibson that we have ever encountered. www.mandolinarchive.com/articles/orville_f.shtml
Orville H. Gibson was born in 1856 on a farm near the small town of Chateaugay, New York, in an area known as "Earlville," about one hour north of Lake Placid and about an hour south of Montreal. www.siminoff.net/pages/gibson_background.html
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Orville Gibson. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orville_Gibson