Shelby Gallien is a student of American history and one of the nation’s foremost authorities on early Kentucky firearms. Based on decades of research, he has authored three comprehensive volumes on Kentucky’s early muzzle loading rifles, their gunmakers, as well as powder horns. He also has over forty published articles.

Shelby was born and raised in West Lafayette, IN. He was always fascinated with American history, particularly the Native Americans’ early conflicts with white intrusion in the Midwest. Tecumseh, The Profit, Little Turtle, and Generals Anthony Wayne and William H. Harrison—they had all walked on Indiana soil, and they were his childhood heroes. He enjoyed hunting for Native American arrowheads and artifacts and reading books about historical figures like Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett.

A pivotal moment occurred when Shelby’s father took him to a show that featured Native American and early settler artifacts. This was the first time he saw ‘Kentucky’ rifles. He marveled at the artisanship of their polished brass patchboxes, intricate silver work, and vivid maple stocks. This inspired Shelby to begin reading the few books available about early frontier rifles.

Shelby completed a BS in chemistry and math from Purdue University and also earned a Master’s in business from Indiana University. In 1970, he moved to Fort Wayne, IN and began his career in the wire industry, first as an analytical chemist, then process engineer. By 1979, he had advanced to become the plant manager for Essex Wire’s large production facility in Fort Wayne.

It was a fortunate move, because in 1980 a co-worker told Shelby that he had an old muzzle loading rifle, and Shelby soon acquired it. The rifle was a beautiful old muzzle loader stocked in curly maple with silver inlays, a large brass patchbox, and the name ‘D. Weller’ engraved on the barrel. Shelby’s research identified D. Weller as gunsmith David Weller of Bardstown, Kentucky; this discovery ignited his journey of collecting and researching early Kentucky firearms.

From then on, Shelby documented all of the names and information he could find on Kentucky gunmakers and the rifles they made. His personal library of antique firearms grew, and he joined associations including the Kentucky Rifle Association, Ohio Long Rifle Collectors Association, Indiana Antique Arms Collectors Association, and Midwest Gun Traders Club. As his knowledge increased, he began writing about early Kentucky and Indiana guns and powder horns. He eventually published over twenty-five articles in The Gun Report and Muzzle Blasts magazines as well as in other periodicals.

Over the years, Shelby furthered his career with senior leadership roles in the wire industry. Eventually, he started his own reel repair company, American Reel Company, in Huntertown, IN. Throughout his professional career, he continued to passionately collect Kentucky rifles and research their gunmakers, which resulted in substantial biographical and photographic files.

When he sold his company in order to retire, he agreed to stay on for several months to ensure a smooth transition. The transition period allowed him time to complete a rough draft of his first book. After nearly three years of drafts, re-writes and editing, the two-volume set entitled Kentucky Gunmakers 1775-1900 was published in 2012. This work was the first major publication dedicated to Kentucky’s early rifles and gunmakers. It identified Kentucky rifles for collectors, organized early rifles into seven distinctive ‘schools’ of gunmaking, illustrated examples of each schools’ work, and provided detailed biographies on over 1,100 early gunmakers who worked in the state.

Shelby’s continuing research, aided by newly discovered guns, motivated him to develop his most recently published book entitled Kentucky Gunmakers: Epilogue, which is a wrap-up volume to Kentucky Gunmakers. It fills in gaps in the first work, identifies two new schools of gunmaking in Kentucky, and illustrates fine rifles from all known schools in detailed color photographs. When combined with the original two-volume set of Kentucky Gunmakers, it offers students of early American firearms a thorough study of Kentucky’s early gunmaking history, its relationship to earlier eastern gunmaking, and its important role in America’s western expansion.

For years, Kentucky’s gunmaking was often overlooked by collectors and researchers due to the assumption that its guns were merely lesser quality ‘mountain rifles.’ Kentucky’s higher quality firearms were often attributed to southwestern Virginia. Thanks to research like Shelby’s, many misidentified early rifles have now been correctly identified as Kentucky products. Shelby’s research has helped Kentucky take its rightful place among the states where early gunmaking was revered for not only its artistry, but also for its social and economic impacts.

Today, Shelby is retired and resides in Fort Wayne, IN with his wife and two mischievous cats. He likes to play pickleball and classical guitar, but he still devotes time to collecting and researching Kentucky’s early firearms, powder horns and related relics. Stay tuned—his future discoveries are still waiting to be published!