(Aug. 17, 2017) Dr. Cindy Byrd has co-authored a new book cataloging the extensive duck decoy collection at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont.
Byrd, the executive director at the Julia A. Purnell Museum in Snow Hill, said “Birds of a Feather: Wildfowl Decoys at Shelburne Museum,” which will be released next month, traces its genesis back several years.
Electra Havemeyer Webb founded the Shelburne Museum in 1947. She developed an interest in burgeoning art forms native to America because of the influence of her parents, Henry and Louisine Havemeyer, who amassed an extensive collection of Impressionistic and European and Asian art.
“She was a wealthy lady and her peers were collecting other types of art, and she was really championing American folk art,” Byrd said. “She was kind of ahead of her time in that way.”
Initially created as a place to house her family’s extensive collection of horse-drawn carriages, over time the Shelburne Museum grew to include 39 historical structures, many relocated from around New York and New England, on a sprawling 45-acre estate.
“Her museum is now well known as a premier museum of America folk art,” she said.
The massive decoy collection traces its roots back to 1952, when Joel Barber, a New York-based architect, artist and carver, donated 400 duck decoys to the fledgling museum.
“It became the basis for their decoy collection,” she said. “She was collecting all of this folk art and the museum was being created from her collection.”
About three years ago Byrd, who at the time worked at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in Salisbury, said her assistance was solicited when curators with the Shelburne Museum sought funding through the National Endowment for the Arts to create an expanded duck decoy display.
“They called me out of the blue, because at that time I was the curator at the largest decoy museum in the country, and asked if I would be interested in working on this project,” she said. “They didn’t have a curator on staff who was specifically a decoy expert, so they wanted a consultant to help.”
Since Barber’s initial decoy donation in the 1950s, Byrd said the Shelburne Museum has received other collections, including works by masters of the trade including A. Elmer Crowell, Charles “Shang” Wheeler, Albert Laing, and Lemuel T. and Steve Ward.
“They now have a large collection of decoys, not as large as the Ward Museum, but it is a couple thousand decoys,” she said.
After securing funding, Byrd said the Shelburne Museum renovated the circa 1830s Dorset House building to provide increased square footage for decoy displays. The first task was to comb through their collection to select the best pieces to exhibit.
“They needed a decoy expert to help them go through their collection and determine what they had and which were their best birds to showcase,” she said.
Sorting through and categorizing the massive collection took forethought, Byrd said.
“Were they going to do it by geographical area or by artist or by time period,” she said. “Those are all different ways that this could be categorized.”
Over several weeks, Byrd helped identify and catalog each decoy by maker, as well as determining which were the best display pieces.
“It took weeks and I loved doing it,” she said. “It was a chance for me to actually see and touch birds that I had only ever seen in pictures.”
The diligent efforts yielded two fold results, Byrd said.
“They used that information both to put together the new permanent exhibit in their remodeled building and also to create this catalog of their collection that has just been published,” she said.
Byrd, who noted the “Birds of a Feather” exhibit opened earlier this summer, hopes the related book release will serve as a useful tool for decoy enthusiasts.
“There are many decoys collectors and carvers who would love to see it and have a reference book for their shelf at home,” she said. “They can refer back to it in terms of carving styles or comparing a bird they find to one in the book to determine its maker.”
Duck decoys, which were originally appreciated mainly for function, in time, came to be cherished for form, Byrd said.
“People are now appreciating their aesthetic qualities more than they were in the past,” she said. “They were always art, they were also useful, but they were always art.”
Byrd, the executive director at the Julia A. Purnell Museum in Snow Hill, said “Birds of a Feather: Wildfowl Decoys at Shelburne Museum,” which will be released next month, traces its genesis back several years.
Electra Havemeyer Webb founded the Shelburne Museum in 1947. She developed an interest in burgeoning art forms native to America because of the influence of her parents, Henry and Louisine Havemeyer, who amassed an extensive collection of Impressionistic and European and Asian art.
“She was a wealthy lady and her peers were collecting other types of art, and she was really championing American folk art,” Byrd said. “She was kind of ahead of her time in that way.”
Initially created as a place to house her family’s extensive collection of horse-drawn carriages, over time the Shelburne Museum grew to include 39 historical structures, many relocated from around New York and New England, on a sprawling 45-acre estate.
“Her museum is now well known as a premier museum of America folk art,” she said.
The massive decoy collection traces its roots back to 1952, when Joel Barber, a New York-based architect, artist and carver, donated 400 duck decoys to the fledgling museum.
“It became the basis for their decoy collection,” she said. “She was collecting all of this folk art and the museum was being created from her collection.”
About three years ago Byrd, who at the time worked at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in Salisbury, said her assistance was solicited when curators with the Shelburne Museum sought funding through the National Endowment for the Arts to create an expanded duck decoy display.
“They called me out of the blue, because at that time I was the curator at the largest decoy museum in the country, and asked if I would be interested in working on this project,” she said. “They didn’t have a curator on staff who was specifically a decoy expert, so they wanted a consultant to help.”
Since Barber’s initial decoy donation in the 1950s, Byrd said the Shelburne Museum has received other collections, including works by masters of the trade including A. Elmer Crowell, Charles “Shang” Wheeler, Albert Laing, and Lemuel T. and Steve Ward.
“They now have a large collection of decoys, not as large as the Ward Museum, but it is a couple thousand decoys,” she said.
After securing funding, Byrd said the Shelburne Museum renovated the circa 1830s Dorset House building to provide increased square footage for decoy displays. The first task was to comb through their collection to select the best pieces to exhibit.
“They needed a decoy expert to help them go through their collection and determine what they had and which were their best birds to showcase,” she said.
Sorting through and categorizing the massive collection took forethought, Byrd said.
“Were they going to do it by geographical area or by artist or by time period,” she said. “Those are all different ways that this could be categorized.”
Over several weeks, Byrd helped identify and catalog each decoy by maker, as well as determining which were the best display pieces.
“It took weeks and I loved doing it,” she said. “It was a chance for me to actually see and touch birds that I had only ever seen in pictures.”
The diligent efforts yielded two fold results, Byrd said.
“They used that information both to put together the new permanent exhibit in their remodeled building and also to create this catalog of their collection that has just been published,” she said.
Byrd, who noted the “Birds of a Feather” exhibit opened earlier this summer, hopes the related book release will serve as a useful tool for decoy enthusiasts.
“There are many decoys collectors and carvers who would love to see it and have a reference book for their shelf at home,” she said. “They can refer back to it in terms of carving styles or comparing a bird they find to one in the book to determine its maker.”
Duck decoys, which were originally appreciated mainly for function, in time, came to be cherished for form, Byrd said.
“People are now appreciating their aesthetic qualities more than they were in the past,” she said. “They were always art, they were also useful, but they were always art.”