Waterfowling

The exhibit begins with market gunning and outlaw gunners who devised ingenious ways of hunting and getting around conservation laws. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Chesapeake waterfowl was served at elite hotels and men's clubs in cities along the eastern seaboard. Market gunners from the surrounding rural areas supplied many of the ducks. For years, market hunting provided the supplementary income without which their families could scarcely survive.

Also on display is one of the most comprehensive working decoy collections. With origins in the Native American culture, the decoy is truly an American art form. Many different traditions of decoy carving are represented in the Museum's collection. Canvasback, redhead, blackhead and black ducks, Canada geese, and swans can be seen feeding, tipped, and floating all with a range of ingenious weights, fasteners, body forms, tail and head positions, and painting techniques.

With the availability of plastic and other inexpensive factory-made decoys in the post-World War II era, the folk art of decoy carving evolved into the decorative form that has produced the many beautiful and life-like forms we see today.

HOME | ABOUT US | WHAT TO SEE & DO | VISITOR INFO | EDUCATION & OUTREACH
MEMBERS & SUPPORTERS| NEWS & MEDIA | Copyright 2003, The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.