Fox Collectors

An older friend here in northern MN gave me some old waterfowl books yesterday, including a first edition of "Wild Fowl Shooting" by William Bruce Leffingwell (1890). The books are all "well read" and had been in his family for a long time. His family has a long history of waterfowl hunting, including market hunting early on, and decoy making. Inside the book, I found a double photo of a couple old duck hunters that was copyrighted 1906, which apparently was used as a book mark. Click on the photos to expand them.

Interestingly, that last several pages in the book were a variety of full page ads that were all hunting or fishing related, including gun ads (e.g. Parker but no AH Fox ads given the 1890 pub date), wooden decoys, duck boats, shotgun shells and gun powder ads and quite a few Rail Road ads. It was common for well to do hunters from the south and east to hop on trains and ride out to the Midwest to hunt and fish in those days. You could rent a sleeper car that had cooking utilities and even a cook, and the car would be dropped off at a good hunting location and then pick up later after the hunts were over. Dogs and guns were transferred for free in the baggage car. Here's a few examples.

Great find!

Great picture, and I'll bet it's an interesting book.

Now that's a really neat book with bonus photos. I bet every time you study those photos you will see something you missed seeing before. Thanks for posting.

What a wonderful gift to you, Alan. Thanks for sharing it with us.

SRH

That is very interesting, Alan! Coming all the way from the east to South Dakota and Minnesota to hunt. Thanks.
Jim

Very nice Al, thanks.
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