• Visit
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Dining Options
    • Military Branch
    • State Capitol
    • Tennessee Residence
    • Green McAdoo Cultural Center
    • Accessibility
    • Museum Store
    • About Us
      • History and Mission Statement
      • Museum Management
      • Douglas Henry State Museum Commission
      • Contact
    • Resources
  • Home
  • Exhibitions
    • Collections
      • Search Our Collection
      • Collection Scope
    • Permanent Exhibitions
      • Tennessee Time Tunnel
      • Natural History
      • First Peoples
      • Forging a Nation
      • The Civil War and Reconstruction
      • Change and Challenge
      • Tennessee Transforms
    • Temporary Exhibitions
      • Painting the Smokies
      • Tennessee at 225
      • Early Expressions: Art in Tennessee Before 1900
      • In Search of the New: Art in Tennessee Since 1900
      • Why Do Museums Collect
    • Online Exhibitions
      • Tennessee at 225
      • Ratified! Statewide!
      • Canvassing Tennessee: Artists and Their Environments
    • Past Exhibitions
      • Best of Tennessee Craft
      • Ratified! Tennessee Women and the Right to Vote
      • Tennessee and the Great War: A Centennial Exhibition
      • STARS: Elementary Art Exhibition 2022
      • Cordell Hull: Tennessee's Father of the United Nations
      • Lets Eat! Origins and Evolutions of Tennessee Food
      • The State of Sound: Tennessee’s Musical Heritage
      • Red Grooms: A Retrospective
      • Between The Layers: Art and Story in Tennessee Quilts
    • Children's Gallery
  • Education
    • Field Trips
      • On-Site Field Trips
      • On-Site Field Trip Request Form
      • Virtual Field Trips
      • Virtual Field Trips Request Form
    • Traveling Trunks & Reservations
      • Reserve a Trunk
      • From Barter to Budget, Financial Literacy in Tennessee
      • The Life and Times of the First Tennesseans
      • Daily Life on the Tennessee Frontier
      • Cherokee in Tennessee: Their Life, Culture, and Removal
      • The Age of Jackson and Tennessee’s Legendary Leaders
      • The Life of a Civil War Soldier
      • The Lives of Three Tennessee Slaves and Their Journey Towards Freedom
      • The Three Rs of Reconstruction: Rights, Restrictions and Resistance.
      • Understanding Women's Suffrage: Tennessee's Perfect 36
      • Transforming America: Tennessee on the World War II Homefront
      • The Modern Movement for Civil Rights in Tennessee
      • Tennessee: Its Land & People
    • Professional Development
    • Tennessee4Me
  • Programs & Events
    • Calendar of Events
    • Summer Activities
    • Videos
    • TN Writers | TN Stories
    • Passport to Tennessee History
    • Newsletter Signup
  • TSM Kids
    • Kids Home
    • Junior Curators Blog
    • Storytime
    • Color Our Collection
    • Jigsaw Puzzles
    • Girl Scout Patch
  • Donate
  • Blogs and More
    • Thousands of Stories
    • Your Story Our Story
    • Junior Curators
    • Quarterly Newsletters
  • Plan Your Visit
  • Donate
  • Events
  • Search
TN State Museum logo Tn State Museum mark
  • Visit
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Dining Options
    • Military Branch
    • State Capitol
    • Tennessee Residence
    • Green McAdoo Cultural Center
    • Accessibility
    • Museum Store
    • About Us
      • History and Mission Statement
      • Museum Management
      • Douglas Henry State Museum Commission
      • Contact
    • Resources
  • Home
  • Exhibitions
    • Collections
      • Search Our Collection
      • Collection Scope
    • Permanent Exhibitions
      • Tennessee Time Tunnel
      • Natural History
      • First Peoples
      • Forging a Nation
      • The Civil War and Reconstruction
      • Change and Challenge
      • Tennessee Transforms
    • Temporary Exhibitions
      • Painting the Smokies
      • Tennessee at 225
      • Early Expressions: Art in Tennessee Before 1900
      • In Search of the New: Art in Tennessee Since 1900
      • Why Do Museums Collect
    • Online Exhibitions
      • Tennessee at 225
      • Ratified! Statewide!
      • Canvassing Tennessee: Artists and Their Environments
    • Past Exhibitions
      • Best of Tennessee Craft
      • Ratified! Tennessee Women and the Right to Vote
      • Tennessee and the Great War: A Centennial Exhibition
      • STARS: Elementary Art Exhibition 2022
      • Cordell Hull: Tennessee's Father of the United Nations
      • Lets Eat! Origins and Evolutions of Tennessee Food
      • The State of Sound: Tennessee’s Musical Heritage
      • Red Grooms: A Retrospective
      • Between The Layers: Art and Story in Tennessee Quilts
    • Children's Gallery
  • Education
    • Field Trips
      • On-Site Field Trips
      • On-Site Field Trip Request Form
      • Virtual Field Trips
      • Virtual Field Trips Request Form
    • Traveling Trunks & Reservations
      • Reserve a Trunk
      • From Barter to Budget, Financial Literacy in Tennessee
      • The Life and Times of the First Tennesseans
      • Daily Life on the Tennessee Frontier
      • Cherokee in Tennessee: Their Life, Culture, and Removal
      • The Age of Jackson and Tennessee’s Legendary Leaders
      • The Life of a Civil War Soldier
      • The Lives of Three Tennessee Slaves and Their Journey Towards Freedom
      • The Three Rs of Reconstruction: Rights, Restrictions and Resistance.
      • Understanding Women's Suffrage: Tennessee's Perfect 36
      • Transforming America: Tennessee on the World War II Homefront
      • The Modern Movement for Civil Rights in Tennessee
      • Tennessee: Its Land & People
    • Professional Development
    • Tennessee4Me
  • Programs & Events
    • Calendar of Events
    • Summer Activities
    • Videos
    • TN Writers | TN Stories
    • Passport to Tennessee History
    • Newsletter Signup
  • TSM Kids
    • Kids Home
    • Junior Curators Blog
    • Storytime
    • Color Our Collection
    • Jigsaw Puzzles
    • Girl Scout Patch
  • Donate
  • Blogs and More
    • Thousands of Stories
    • Your Story Our Story
    • Junior Curators
    • Quarterly Newsletters

Enter a search request and press enter. Press Esc or the X to close.

Close
1
  • Home
  • Blogs and More
  • Junior Curators

Each week on the Junior Curators blog, we travel back in time to a different place in Tennessee history. Stories may be about a famous person, place or event from Tennessee’s past. They will include things like priceless artifacts, pictures, videos, and even some games. Be sure to better understand the story by answering the questions at the end of each post.

After learning the story, be sure to share what you've learned with your parents, family, or friends. Try making your own exhibit about it, shooting a movie, or writing a story about it. Let your creativity run wild!


 

9-18-20

Go See Tennessee: Ducks on Parade

by Emilee Dehmer

West Tennessee - Peabody Hotel, Memphis

There are so many cool and exciting places in Tennessee. So many, that you might not know about them all. That’s what Go See Tennessee is all about. We’re here to tell you about places we think are neat and that you might want to visit too. It might be helpful to make a “Go and See” List, and whenever you read about a place that sounds cool, write it down, to help you remember it for the future. Ready for this week’s place? Let’s go!

Ducks. You’ve probably seen them before, swimming in ponds, eating bread crumbs and quacking around. But have you ever seen a duck march in a duck parade? If you haven’t, add the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, TN to your ‘go and see’ list.


Image of the Peabody Hotel. Tennessee State Museum Collection.

Image of Peabody Hotel. Tennessee State Museum Collection.


The famous Duck March has been happening at the historic Peabody Hotel since 1940 (that’s 80 years!). Every morning at exactly 11 am, the elevator doors open and out walk five ducks led by The Duckmaster. They walk down the duck-sized red carpet that has been laid out just for them and waddle down to the large fountain in the middle of the hotel lobby. They hop up the ducky staircase into the fountain and spend their day splish-splashin’ in the water.


Postcard showing the marble fountain inside the Peadbody Hotel, Tennessee State Museum Collection.


After a long day of looking cute and swimming in circles, the ducks line up for their second march of the day at 5 pm. The Duckmaster, in his fancy red suit, leads the ducks back down the carpet, up the elevator, and into their duck penthouse on the roof.

The best part? Kids can sit at the edge of the red carpet and get a close-up view of the ducks as they make their march! It may not be a red carpet for a movie star, but these ducks are famous in a different way. And if you’re wondering how in the world this duck parade got started, it was all because of a failed hunting trip. In the 1930’s, the manager returned from a hunting trip that didn’t go well, and decided to release some live ducks in the fountain as a joke. The guests loved it so much that the ducks were allowed to stay!


Small brass pin from the Peabody Hotel, Tennessee State Museum Collection.


So, make sure you parade on down to the Peabody Hotel at 11 am or 5 pm to watch the Peabody Ducks on their duck march. And if you get hungry while waiting, make sure you’ve brought some quackers to munch on.

To learn more about the Peabody Hotel and their ducks, visit their website at:

https://www.peabodymemphis.com/  

To see more, watch the video below:

 

 

Emilee Dehmer is an Educator at the Tennessee State Museum.

Posted by Katie Yenna at 08:00
Tennessee in the 20th Century Modern Tennessee
  • « What Does a Soldier Eat?
  • Interview with an Archaeologist »

TN State Museum logo
Resources
  • About Us
  • Press Room
  • Title VI
  • Venue Rental
  • Jobs
  • Public Records Policy
  • Museum and Copyright Policies
  • Douglas Henry State Museum Commission
  • Public Meetings
  • Social Media Guidelines
  • Contact
Contact

Bill Haslam Center
1000 Rosa L. Parks Blvd
Nashville, TN 37208

(615) 741-2692

(800) 407-4324

info@tnmuseum.org

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Trip Advisor
Tennessee State Museum © 2022 Memphis Web Design by Speak