A Summer of Ducks

 

                This summer I did my internship at the Havre de Grace Decoy Museum, a small museum dedicated to the history and craft of duck decoys. These decoys were initially used in hunting, but quickly evolved into their own folk art. They are traditionally made of wood, but many were manufactured out of other materials such as cork or cloth. Today, most decoys are made as decorative pieces, and as a show of skill, rather than for practical use.

The museum itself is primarily dedicated to the decoys produced in the Havre de Grace area, but does also feature decoys from the broader Chesapeake region, as well as a few from further reaches, such as Louisianna. Havre de Grace is located on the Susquehanna Flats, a meeting spot of the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay with a lot of shallow water where lots of water celery used to grow (much of it has since died because of algae blooms), making it a prime stop for migrating ducks. Because of that, it also became a prime spot for duck hunting, and therefore decoy making. The museum is dedicated not only to the display of past and present decoy artists, but to the history of duck hunting in Havre de Grace and beyond. It includes multiple exhibits showing the history and making of decoys, the adaptation of hunting techniques over time, and the works of various decoy makers.

My official title this internship was Curatorial Intern. Though, with a museum this small, the title of “curator” includes a very broad range of responsibilities. Working under the main curators Nathaniel Heasley and Ginny Sanders, I was assisting in a variety of tasks including mailing and filing loan renewals, cataloging and creating digital records for donations and loans we received, setting up, cleaning, and repairing exhibits, and checking in and directing visitors at the front desk. My main job was working in setting up the new exhibit about African American decoy carvers in the Chesapeake region. Overall, I learnt a lot about how museums, especially small scale museums are run, funded, and upkept.