The Ward Museum

Schumaker Pond birding with Dad right outside the museum

Lem & Steve Ward

Brothers carving

The Drifter

Poem by Steve Ward

Carving line up

From block to full painted head. Duck decoy carvers usually create the body and the head separately from one another, then attach them closer to completion

Shootin' stool decoy made from cork

This type of decoy was used to attract other ducks for hunters.

Decoy with twine for retrieval

Underneath you can see the bird’s anchor. In a competition, functioning decoys like this must be able to right themselves after being placed in the water upside down.

Transverse duck, one of a pair

These decoys are purely decorative, leaving behind their hunting function. // American Mergansers. 1989 Best in World Decorative Lifesize Waterfowl. Chris Bonner, Brandenton, FL

Installation for more sculpturally driven carving

City Pigeons. 1994 Best in World Interpretive Wood Sculpture. John Sharp, Kent, OH

City Pigeons

Detail

Kestral

1996. Best in World Decorative Lifesize. Tood Wohlt, Neenah, WI

Mounts as installation

Red Right Return - Osprey. 1994. Ernie Muehlmatt, Salisbury, MD

Birds are jerks

Hawk & Pheasant. 1972. Grainger McKoy.

Hawk & Pheasant

Detail

Decoys as an extension of hunting

Early in the 20th century, many hunters hunted for their living, selling the ducks they shot. Large guns like this were used on boats to kill large numbers of birds and have long since become illegal.

Chesapeake Bay retriever

Items from the Ward studio

Acrylic and oil paints, brushes, carving tools

Ward brothers' carving patterns

Photograph of Ward studio

You can see the machines they used to carve the decoys.

One of the exhibitions featured contemporary basket weaving and its relationship to the fishing industry.

Map of the United States

It describes each region and the duck species native to each, next to decoys of those very birds.

Virginia native

You can see the wood underneath the painting on some of the decoys. A lot of caring happens on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, a small peninsula connected to the rest of the state only via bridge.

Another bird decoy from Virginia's Eastern Shore

I was able to visit my family in Virginia this last week. Recently I have started carving birds with my father during these visits, but this time our friend’s basement wood shop wasn’t available. Instead we drove 3.5 hours each way to Salisbury, MD on the eastern shore to visit the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art.

I was most excited see how art can extend from craft and function. I felt at home in the intersection of hunting, craft, and painting. Here specifically, decorative carving evolved from functioning decoys used for hunting. The museum explores the history of decoys and carving and concentrates specifically upon two brothers, Lem and Steve Ward from Crisfield, MD. They changed the culture around carving during the early 20th century. Rural life, nature, and relationships met art.

“I’m just an old has been decoy,
no ribbons have I won.
My sides and head are full of shot
from many a blazing gun.
My home has been by the river,
just drifting along with the tide.
No roof have I had for a shelter,
no one place where I could abide.
I’ve rocked to winters wild fury;
I’ve scorched in the head of the sun.
I’ve drifted and drifted and drifted
for tides never cease to run.
I was picked up by some fool collector,
who put me up here on a shelf.
But my place is out on the river,
where I can drift all by myself.
I want to go back to the shoreline,
where flying clouds hang thick and low,
And get the touch of the rain drops
and the velvety soft touch of the snow.”

— THE DRIFTER by Steve Ward