The history and evolution of the American duck call is a culmination of over twenty years of collecting and research on the subject.  Duck Calls-An Enduring American Folk Art presents photographs and advertisements on a scale never before undertaken of calls and their makers from past and present.  This book presents  this craft as a true American Folk Art form.

No one knows exactly who invented the first duck call or when and where it was constructed. Howard Harlan and W. Crew Anderson, coauthors of Duck Calls: An Enduring American Folk Art, discovered what may be the first evidence of their existence in an 1854 Nathaniel Currier art print, in which a dapper sportsman is depicted with a primitive tongue-pincher-style call tucked in his breast pocket. In 1863, Fred Allen of Monmouth, Illinois, is believed to have fashioned the first modern-appearing duck call, consisting of a barrel, stopper, and internal reed assembly. A few decades later, another early master, Victor Glodo, developed a more effective design, which he put to good use as a market hunter on Tennessee’s Reelfoot Lake. Over time, many individuals experimented with and improved upon these early prototypes. Another major innovation occurred in 1957, when Texans Jim Fernandez and George Yentzen patented the first double-reed duck call.

The evolution of the modern duck call continues today, as call making has grown into a multimillion-dollar industry. While many call makers now mass produce their wares in state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, others continue to painstakingly fashion calls by hand, upholding the grand traditions of their craft. Visit your local sporting goods retailer and you are likely to find a plethora of duck calls made of almost every conceivable material, from traditional woods to space-age acrylics.

The Art of American Game Calls is a book about a unique American art form, the game call.  Calls are most familiar to duck, goose and turkey hunters.  However, many other types of calls exist and one has been made for nearly every type of sporting hunt as well as for the hunting of most prey animals.  A few other books have been written on calls and the books by Harlan are superb.  Dr. Russell E. Lewis authored Collecting Antique Bird Decoys and Duck Calls, 3^rd Edition and it has extensive coverage (two chapters) of all types of calls.  Yet very little has been written on this subject and few know the value of a good call.  Dr. Lewis has used calls for duck, squirrel and turkey hunting.  He grew up in an extended family that hunted, trapped and fished and used every possible means at gaining their objective at hand, including the use of calls.  As a collector he became interested in the beauty of calls and started keeping a few.  The next thing he knew, he had well over a hundred of them and the calls became a new collection to go with his decoys and fishing lures.

As a former archaeologist and current author on antiques, the next step was to do research on the making and collecting of calls and write a book.  His publisher, Billy Schroeder asked him to do this book with large views of calls to show their intrinsic beauty and tell you a bit about them.  The book is not meant as much a reference as a photographic record of about 300 calls shown in detail.

Dr. Russell E. Lewis enlisted the assistance of Mr. Joe Jaroski who has been making calls since 1945.  Joe has made hundreds of calls and knows or knew most of the major call makers in America, especially along the Illinois River, parts of the Ohio River and Mississippi River hunting areas.

The Art of American Game Calls Identification & values guide