Since its founding in the late 1960's, the Ward Museum has served as host of the collection of wildfowl art.  The original collection housed decoys by Crisfield carvers Lem (1896-1984) and Steve (1895-1976) Ward.  While still working, a Ward Foundation was created in collaboration with Salisbury University and housed on campus.  As the collection grew, a fundraising effort resulted in the creation in 1992 of the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art on Schumaker Drive in Salisbury Maryland.    

Over the years, the Ward Museum sponsored a stream of ongoing events the celebrate the legacy of the Ward brothers. School class visits were frequent, as were exhibits of individual artists, along with the results of the world wildfowl championship competition.  It became so large that the Ward Foundation had to organize the carving competition in the convention center of nearby Ocean City, Maryland.

What befell the Ward Museum was a decline in revenue over time, resulting in Salisbury University agreeing to take over the collection and building in 1990, while the Foundation would continue to manage the museum and associated events.  When COVID struck the region in 2020, the museum saw a further decline in revenue as visits and exhibits were placed on hold while health precautions were undertaken.  

In 2022, following a break in the HVAC system, the Ward Museum was closed temporarily while a fix to the system was undertake.  At that time, the University decided that the museum would not be re-opened and that a review would be undertaken to determine the future of the museum and its collection.  Despite public protests, the University declared that the collection would be stored primarily on campus but with an exhibit on display at the newly created Museum of Delmarva History and Culture on West Main Street in downtown Salisbury.  Not long afterward, the University negotiated to have the museum converted into the Wicomico County Library, with the existing library structure to be replaced by a University Performing Arts Center.  As plans to implement a renovation of the Ward Museum building on Schumaker Pond to the County Library proceeds, the range and scope of the original museum collection and function is being lost to history.  

To provide an idea of what is being lost by the current plan to shift the County library to the museum and to construct a Performing Arts Center in its places, images below were documented from a visit in 2024 before the contents were removed.  This documentation was undertaken while a petition to save the Ward Museum had garnered 5,600 signatures by the community and which the University has chosen to ignore as renovations proceed.   Anyone who appreciates the uniqueness of the Ward Museum cannot but be disappointed that such an historical treasure is now being wrecked.