Top Level : Harvesting : Waterfowl : Duck Decoys

Bluebill Drake Decoy, no date.
Louis H. Hahn, Havana, Illinois.
Wood, 11 3/4 inches long.
Illinois State Museum Collection (1967.42, 798984)
Gift of Herman Glick, Havana, Illinois.

Hahn was a market hunter who made solid wood decoys of ducks and geese between 1900 and 1920. They are often crudely formed from telephone pole wood and painted without much detail.

He is known for using a human hunter decoy when hunting geese in marshes. He positioned this cutout man at the opposite end of the marsh, pulled a wire to raise it to a standing position, thus flushing the geese toward him.

Photograph by Gary Andrashko, Illinois State Museum.

<b>Bluebill Drake Decoy</b>, no date.<br>Louis H. Hahn, Havana, Illinois. <br>Wood, 11 3/4 inches long.<br>Illinois State Museum Collection (1967.42, 798984)<br>Gift of Herman Glick, Havana, Illinois.<p>Hahn was a market hunter who made solid wood decoys of ducks and geese between 1900 and 1920. They are often crudely formed from telephone pole wood and painted without much detail. </p><p>He is known for using a human hunter decoy when hunting geese in marshes. He positioned this cutout man at the opposite end of the marsh, pulled a wire to raise it to a standing position, thus flushing the geese toward him.