Barber began collecting the carved wooden decoys in 1918 after finding one, a red-breasted merganser hen, by accident near his Long Island boathouse.
[2] But his most enduring contribution was his 1934 book Wild Fowl Decoys which is considered the seminal work on the subject, and remained the definitive collector's guide for many decades after its publication.
He also wrote a lesser known work of short stories and poetry, Long Shore, based on his experiences as an outdoorsman in New England.
Following his death in 1952, Barber's collection of about 400 decoys was given to the Shelburne Museum in Vermont.
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