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“It
is a broad, deep, impressive
assemblage of flies—and
finally, one distinguished not
only by the tyers represented,
but by Cushner’s work as well.”
--Ted Leeson |
William Cushner, 1914-1992,
owned a framing shop in New York
City for 30 years.He worked with
art galleries, national
magazines, advertising agencies
and individual artists.He was
also an artist in the
conventional realm as a
geometric constructionist.
Bill began framing flies in
the late 1960’s. Herman
Kessler of Field and Stream
engaged him to frame some flies
tied by his wife Helen
Shaw. He immediately
recognized fly tying as an art
form and was motivated to design
a unique presentation for
them. This is how he first
designed his signature fly
plate.
He personally began
collecting flies and angling art
and organized them into a
collection of fly plates, which
he exhibited at the American
Museum of Sports in Madison
Square Garden, at the New York
City American Museum of Natural
History and Philadelphia’s
Academy of Natural Sciences. His
fly plates have been shown
nationwide at fly fishing
conclaves, Atlantic salmon
forums and sportsmen’s shows.
His exhibitions were highly
acclaimed and established him as
the world’s leading collector
and exhibitor of fly
fishing art.
Bill retired in 1983 and he
and his wife moved to Cape
Breton, Nova Scotia.
There he opened his first
museum at his home.
Despite the somewhat remote
location, it attracted visitors
from Canada, the US and eleven
foreign countries.  A
sampling of the fly tyers
represented at that time
included such luminaries as
Helen Shaw, Edward Hewitt, Art
Flick, Ernie Schweibert, Reub
Cross, the Dettes, the Darbees,
Carrie Stevens, Belarmino
Martinez of Spain, Michael Rogan
of Ireland, Charles De Feo, Lee
Wulff, Preston Jennings and many
others.
When he moved to the Oregon
coast in 1986, Bill brought the
museum with him and continued to
augment an already extensive
collection. Bill’s
interest in regional flies and
tyers gained momentum and he
began assembling the work of
Western tyers—among others,
George Grant, Ted Niemeyer,
Polly Rosborough, Bill McMillan,
Steve Raymond, Marty Sherman,
Jim Pray, Walt Johnson and Lola
McClain.
The American Museum of Fly
Fishing in Manchester, Vermont
owns his first major collection
of more than 230 frames of antique
and modern flies.
www.amff.com
The second major collection
is now owned by the Granville
Island Sport fishing Museum in
Vancouver, BC, Canada.
www.sportfishingmuseum.bc.ca/fishing/links.html
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