In the 1930s, she won two federal commissions to complete post office murals for the Public Works Art Project of the Treasury Department.

[7] After completing high school, Gilmore attended the University of Kentucky in 1927,[8] studying art under Carol Sax.

[9] She then studied at the School of Fine Arts and Crafts in Boston and the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute.

[6] In 1938, Gilmore produced a work, featuring Chief Wapello, to commemorate Air-mail Week for the Ottumwa post office.

[10] Though she won the competition for Band Concert with a cannon and an obelisk included in the sketch, residents of Corning complained that the design did not accurately reflect their town.

Gilmore was forced to alter her mural to remove the cannon and obelisk, though she did add decorative landscaping, rather than the buildings which could actually be seen behind the bandstand.