In 1938, Gilmore produced a work, featuring Chief Wapello, to commemorate Air-mail Week for the Ottumwa post office. The cachet was used on all mail sent from the Ottumwa post office during the 20th anniversary of the launch of air mail service in the U.S.[12][13] In 1939, Gilmore was teaching art to children at the Ottumwa Community Art Center with Robert Hulse,[14] whom she later married in 1943.[15] She won the commission to produce a mural for the town of Corning, Iowa[6] in 1939. The painting was featured in Life[16] as part of an article on 48 murals to be produced for each of the contiguous U.S. States. Gilmore's mural featured a scene she had sketched at a band concert in Hedrick, Iowa.[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.[17][18]
In 1941, Gilmore won the competition to complete the post office mural in Corydon, Iowa.[19] The mural, Volunteer Fire Department, was completed in 1942 and features a 1928 Continental fire engine, which was the truck used by the town's fire department. While the original mural remains in the post office, a replica of the mural and the original truck are part of an exhibit found in the Prairie Trails Museum of Wayne County.[20][21][22]
After her marriage, Gilmore began using the professional gender-neutral name Mion Hulse.[6] In 1943, her husband, Robert, worked on an exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the following year was hired as an instructor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.[23][24] The couple lived there before moving to Long Island, New York, in 1952.[25][26] Gilmore worked in painting, sculpting, illustration, and design. Her paintings fall into the Ashcan and Social Realism schools and often depict their images in a humorous way. Her work was widely exhibited and included in collections and galleries. Some of the best representations of her work include "Children in Washington Park", "Fischer's Tavern", "Ham & Eggs - 45¢" and "Yard Sale", all of which were included in a posthumous exhibit hosted by the Seiderman Gallery in Lynbrook, New York, in 1995.[27]
Raynor, Patricia (October–December 1997). "Off the Wall: New Deal Post Office Murals". EnRoute: The National Postal Museum Membership Newsletter. 6 (4). Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
"20th Century Gallery". Prairie Trails Museum. Corydon, Iowa: Prairie Trails Museum of Wayne County, IA. 2011. Archived from the original on 23 June 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
"Robert H. Hulse, Instructor of Art". The Bulletin of the University of Minnesota: Publications of the Faculties. XLVIII (4). Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota: 112. December 1944. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
