John Bernard Gilpin was born on September 4, 1810, in Newport, Rhode Island.

He was a physician, surgeon, naturalist, author, and artist. He studied at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut (B.A., 1831) and at the University of Pennsylvania (M.D., 1834). In 1838, he practised medicine in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. In 1845, he travelled to London, England to pass the exam qualifying him as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He set up his practice in Halifax. Although his contributions to the medical profession in Nova Scotia were important, he is chiefly remembered as a naturalist. After his wife's death in 1851, he became deeply engrossed in the study of the fauna of Nova Scotia. He was a founder of the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science (later the Nova Scotian Institute of Science) and served as its president (1873-1878). Over the next 20 years, he presented 34 papers on birds, fishes, seals, walruses, moose, beavers, serpents, fossils, and mammalia of Nova Scotia. He also wrote on the Stone Age and on the Indians of the province. His lecture "Sable Island: Its Past History, Present Appearance, Natural History, &c., &c." was published in Halifax in 1858. Gilpin’s papers were frequently illustrated with his own drawings. In 1882, he was one of the founders of the Royal Society of Canada.

In 1846, he married Charlotte Smith (–1851). He died on March 12, 1892, in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.