Robert McGaw

Robert McGaw was born in 1879 in Havre de Grace, Maryland. While working on the Pennsylvania railroad he carved decoys by hand for his own use as well as for other hunters. When the hunting season was over he also carved miniatures. McGaw owned the first machine in Havre de Grace that was able to make decoys. He later sold the machine to Madison Mitchell (another well-known carver); however, the machine is now exhibited at the Havre de Grace Decoy Museum—a tribute to the vast legacy of decoy carvers in the area. He spent his career carving mostly canvasbacks, redheads, black ducks, bluebills, mallards, and in his later life he carved geese, pintails and wigeons before his death in 1958.