In 1882, William Gilbert Gaul was elected to the National Academy of Design when he was 27 years old. Later, he was awarded the medal of the American Art Association, the medal of the Paris Exposition in 1889, two bronze medals of the Chicago Exposition in 1893, the medal of the Buffalo Exposition in 1901, and a gold medal at the Appalachian Exhibition of 1910 in Knoxville, Tennessee.