Fathers of Decoy Carving

Four of the most prominent decoy carvers in Havre de Grace—R. Madison Mitchell, Lou Clair, Robert McGaw, and Paul Gibson are often referred to as the “Fathers of Decoy Carving.” For these men, carving was not a profession but a practical hobby and side job that would come to shape a cultural legacy. Among them, R. Madison Mitchell is perhaps the most widely recognized. A funeral  director by trade, Mitchell once said all he wanted was “to be a good funeral director and carve things out of wood in [his] free time.” That passion turned into a six-decade career during which he carved tens of thousands of decoys in the small shop behind his funeral home. His legacy lives on in the Havre de Grace Decoy Museum where you can see his complete workshop just as it was during his lifetime.