George William Headley III (January 8, 1908 – February 7, 1985) was an American jewelry designer, collector, socialite and founder of the Headley-Whitney Museum in Lexington, Kentucky.
As a designer, he was known for collaborations with Salvador Dalí, Paul Flato, David Webb and Cartier, between the 1920s and 1960s,[1] with clients including Douglas Fairbanks, Gary Cooper, the Marx Brothers, Judy Garland and Joan Crawford, as well as for his extravagant bibelots - small, intricate and precious decorative objects.
[2] After a nineteen-year career in New York and Los Angeles, he moved to his Lexington, Kentucky family farm La Belle in 1949, where he died in 1985, two years after his wife.
To house his growing collections, Headley hired Lexington architect Robert Pinkerton to design an luxurious and distinctive Jewel Room and Library.
The buildings feature a sloped Thai roof, Greek columns, English windows, French floor design, and Georgian moldings and match Headley's eclectic style and tastes.