Decoys of Dorchester County, a special exhibit featuring decoys from the private collections of East Coast Decoy Collectors Club members and the permanent collection of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s (CBMM) in St. Michaels, MD will be featured as part of the Waterfowl Festival’s Artifacts Exhibit in Easton, MD. The special exhibit will be on display at Easton High School during the November 11-13 event.
From left: East Coast Decoy Collector’s members Ronnie Newcomb and Henry Stansbury, along with CBMM Chief Curator Pete Lesher show several decoys from the Museum’s Decoys of Dorchester County special exhibit, which opens April 9 at the Museum’s Waterfowling Building in St. Michaels, MD. The exhibit opening is held in conjunction with the East Coast Decoy Collector’s “Buy, Sell & Swap” event held April 8th & 9th at the St. Michaels Best Western, which is also open to the public. Photo Credit: David Harp, ChesapeakePhotos.com
Dorchester County historically offered vast expanses of marshland as shelter and food for migrating ducks and geese along the Atlantic flyway. This translated into rich hunting grounds for area waterfowlers and a high demand for decoys. These gunners made their own decoys or often obtained them locally, producing some of the greatest variety of North American decoys, including some of the crudest to a few of the most refined.
The exhibit will include decoys along with a boat, some firearms, and a gunning light with Dorchester County associations, and is free with Waterfowl Festival admission. Many of the artifacts are on permanent display in the museum’s Waterfowling Building where visitors can discover why the Bay attracts flocks of migrating birds and about the sport, industry, and art of waterfowling. The museum’s 18-acre waterfront campus is open daily 362 days a year. For more information, visit www.cbmm.org or www.waterfowlfestival.org