The Center for American Decoys at Peoria Riverfront Museum

05/22/2025

Don't miss out on this awesome event!

Decoys are in their DNA.

Join us at the Peoria Riverfront Museum for a special presentation on the art of the American decoy:
"Celebrate American Bird Decoys" with carver Mark McNair and decoy specialist Colin McNair
Saturday, June 7, 2025 | 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Learn more on our website today: RiverfrontMuseum.org

Colin McNair has been in the decoy carving business since birth. His father, Mark McNair is a carver, and Mark himself went on to be a decoy specialist for one of the most important fine art auctions in America, Copley Fine Art Auctions. Enjoy a carving demonstration, a special introduction to decoys by Colin McNair and a gallery tour of Folk: Selections from the American Folk Art Museum with curator of art Zac Zetterberg, in conversation with the McNairs.

Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation, Copley Fine Art Auctions, Visionary Society, and Illinois Arts Council.

01/10/2025

Great post on one of the many amazing pieces in the Center for American Decoys!

11/05/2024

The Center for American Decoys recently received an incredible donation of a Charles Perdew fancy call for the museum’s permanent collection. The call, relief-carved with the name “FRANK” around the barrel, was made for Frank Mikes, an avid outdoorsman, minor league baseball player, coal salesman, and Illinois River Valley duck hunter.

Perdew made three distinctly different styles of duck calls: a red cedar “Illinois River” call, a black walnut “St. Francis” duck call, and much more customized mahogany calls that are known today as “fancy calls” due to the intricate and personalized carving used to embellish the surface.

The FRANK fancy call was a custom order gifted to Frank Mikes from a group of his close hunting buddies. Frank’s wife Helen gave Ken the call when Frank passed away in 1955. For years, Ken was unfamiliar with the historical significance of the call, but it served him well as a reminder of the great stories Frank shared about hunting on the Illinois River.

Plan a visit to see museum-quality decoys and related art at The Center for American Decoys today: RiverfrontMuseum.org

To learn more about how The Center for American Decoys is keeping this traditional folk art alive, subscribe to our "Center for American Decoys" newsletter here: https://rb.gy/smfjkv

10/30/2024

🦆:
Augustus "Gus" Wilson
1864-1950
Mohegan Island, Maine
"Red-breasted merganser drake" ca. 1890 American Folk Art Museum, New York
Gift of Alastair Martin. 1969.1.25

Plan a visit to see museum-quality decoys and related art at The Center for American Decoys today: RiverfrontMuseum.org

To learn more about how The Center for American Decoys is keeping this traditional folk art alive, subscribe to our "Center for American Decoys" newsletter here: https://rb.gy/smfjkv

10/23/2024

🦆:
Ivy Stevens 1876-1947
Knotts Island, North Carolina
"Ruddy duck" ca. 1920
American Folk Art Museum, New York Gift of Alastair Martin. 1969.1.24

Plan a visit to see museum-quality decoys and related art at The Center for American Decoys today: RiverfrontMuseum.org

To learn more about how The Center for American Decoys is keeping this traditional folk art alive, subscribe to our "Center for American Decoys" newsletter here: https://rb.gy/smfjkv

10/17/2024

Perfect for Halloween season, did you know that a group of crows is called a 'murder?'

🐦‍⬛:
Charles H. Perdew
1874-1963 (Henry, IL)
"Crow"
Ca. 1940

Plan a visit to see museum-quality decoys and related art at The Center for American Decoys today : RiverfrontMuseum.org

To learn more about how The Center for American Decoys is keeping this traditional folk art alive, subscribe to our "Center for American Decoys" newsletter here: https://rb.gy/smfjkv

10/15/2024

Lem and Steve Ward of Crisfield, Maryland were brothers who became world renowned for their wildfowl carvings.

They were barbers by trade and started carving decoys between customers. By 1930, the Ward brothers were carving for hunting clubs and sporting hunters who could afford the best. The brothers created thousands of decoys between 1930 and 1959. By the 1950's, plastic and mass produced decoys dominated the market and decorative birds became the focus of their carving. Around 1965, the barbershop closed and was reopened as "L.T. Ward & Bro. Wildfowl Counterfeiters in Wood." The brothers made carvings together until Steve's death in 1976. Shortly before his death in 1984, Lem won the National Endowment for the Arts' 1983 National Heritage Fellowship.

🦆:
Stephen and Lemuel Ward 1895-1976, 1896-1984
Crisfield, Maryland
"Pintail drake" ca. 1925
American Folk Art Museum, New York Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill Jr. 1964.1.4

Plan a visit to see museum-quality decoys and related art at The Center for American Decoys today : RiverfrontMuseum.org

To learn more about how The Center for American Decoys is keeping this traditional folk art alive, subscribe to our "Center for American Decoys" newsletter here: https://rb.gy/smfjkv

10/10/2024

Masters of camouflage, black-bellied plovers can be found foraging on the shore's edge, or at the Center for American Decoys!

🦆:
Anthony Elmer Crowell
1862-1951
East Harwich, Massachusetts
"Black-bellied plover"
1900-1910
American Folk Art Museum, New York
Gift of Alastair Martin. 1969.1.129

Plan a visit to see museum-quality decoys and related art at The Center for American Decoys today : RiverfrontMuseum.org

To learn more about how The Center for American Decoys is keeping this traditional folk art alive, subscribe to our "Center for American Decoys" newsletter here: https://rb.gy/smfjkv

10/08/2024

The unique beat on this duck decoy by Charles E. "Shang" Wheeler is a fantastic example of how folk artists took a utilitarian item like the decoy and put their own artistic flair onto it.

🦆:
Charles E. "Shang" Wheeler"
1872-1949
Stratford, Connecticut
"White-winged scoter drake"
ca. 1930

American Folk Art Museum, New York
Gift of Alistair Martin. 1969.1.16

Plan a visit to see museum-quality decoys and related art at The Center for American Decoys today : RiverfrontMuseum.org

To learn more about how The Center for American Decoys is keeping this traditional folk art alive, subscribe to our "Center for American Decoys" newsletter here: https://rb.gy/smfjkv

10/03/2024

A painting by self-taught pre-Civil War painter William Ranney now hangs in the completely updated Center for American Decoys at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.

This incredible piece depicts a hunter and his faithful dogs on a brisk morning hunting wild duck.

🖼:
William Tylee Ranney
1813-1857 (American)
"Wild Duck Shooting- On the Wing"
1850
Oil on Canvas
Private Collection

Plan a visit to see museum-quality decoys and related art at The Center for American Decoys today : RiverfrontMuseum.org

To learn more about how The Center for American Decoys is keeping this traditional folk art alive, subscribe to our "Center for American Decoys" newsletter here: https://rb.gy/smfjkv

10/01/2024

The swan is a figure of beauty, romance, and tranquility, depicted lovingly in this Center for American Decoys carving.

🪿:
Artist Undentified
Chesapeake Bay Region, Maryland
"Swan"
ca. 1955
American Folk Art Museum, New York
Gift of Alastair Martin. 1969.1.76

Plan a visit to see museum-quality decoys and related art at The Center for American Decoys today : RiverfrontMuseum.org

To learn more about how The Center for American Decoys is keeping this traditional folk art alive, subscribe to our "Center for American Decoys" newsletter here: https://rb.gy/smfjkv

08/29/2024

If you haven't seen our major new upgrades to the The Center for American Decoys at Peoria Riverfront Museum, plan your visit now!

Plan your visit on our website today: RiverfrontMuseum.org

With 14 new hand-crafted display cases made by the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, and several new decoys from the American Folk Art Museum, the Peoria Riverfront Museum's Center for American Decoys has undergone an incredible transformation that will change how you see duck decoys forever.

Duck decoys are one of the few truly American art forms, and they live in the confluence of beauty and utility, taking an item that was primarily used for hunting, and carving it, painting it, and perfecting it to become a work of fine art.

The Peoria Riverfront Museum gratefully acknowledges the major support of Bon and Holly French and the Taylor French Decoy Fund for the Center for American Decoys.
Display cases made by the Peoria Tribe and generously underwritten by the museum’s Ronald P. Bonati Fund.