Miles B. Carpenter

Miles Burkholder Carpenter (May 12, 1889 – May 7, 1985) was an American folk sculptor.

Carpenter was a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and was the eighth of eleven children of farmer Wayne M. Carpenter and his wife, Elizabeth R. Burkholder Carpenter; he was the fourth of seven boys, and was born on Cedar Hill Farm near Brownstown. He attended a one-room school and worked on the family farm with his siblings. In the spring of 1902 the Carpenters moved to Virginia, where Wayne had acquired 340 acres near Waverly for farming; he would later build a sawmill as well. On May 19, 1915, Miles Carpenter married Mary Elizabeth Stahl, of Carbon County, Pennsylvania, with whom he had a son. Around 1912 Miles, with financial assistance from his father, purchased a vacant factory which he soon began to operate as a lumber mill, producing finished wood for local builders. He operated a sawmill and made and sold ice, and for several years with a partner ran an open-air theater for the showing of films. From time to time he would tinker with pieces of wood, and in 1941, during a slow period of business, began whittling. His wife was greatly pleased by his first carving, a polar bear, and she encouraged him to carve more animals; the post-war building boom left him little time for further carving, but in the mid-1950s he closed his mill, suffering from the aftereffects of a number of accidents which he had incurred while operating machinery. His wife died on November 5, 1966; he produced the majority of his work after that date. It displays the largest collection of Carpenter's work anywhere in the world, as well as his tools and other items related to his career.

Seven sculptures by Carpenter are owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Three works are in the collection of the American Folk Art Museum. Four pieces are held by the Milwaukee Art Museum. Three sculptures, including the original carved watermelon he had made as a trade sign, are in the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum.