Mustard & Pepper Fall 2022

From the Archives: Origins of the DDTCA

Was there an earlier Dandie Club in the US? by Kevin S. Burford, Archivist/Historian A question was recently raised as to when the Dandie Dinmont Club of America was first affiliated with the American Kennel Club. In the DDTCA archives there is a scrapbook compiled by Katherine Illoway, nee White, (who, according to secretarial notes, was a board member of the DDTCA from 1932 - 1935 and would later become the secretary - treasurer of the DDTCA in 1936) and who, with her husband, founded Buccleuch Kennels. Her column provides some background of the origins of our current club and, most intriguingly, hints of an earlier club! In this scrapbook there are a number of Dandie Dinmont Terrier columns written by Mrs. Warren (Elizabeth A.) Fellows (of the Ark) for the bi - weekly magazine, Popular Dogs, which give us several clues. Although, for the most part, the editorials are undated there is an implied chronology from their sequence in being pasted in the physical scrapbook. The articles cited appear to have been published in the years 1929 - 1932. Elizabeth Fellows would go on to become the first vice - president of the DDTCA in 1932. In her regular column, “ Dandie Dinmont Terriers, ” she makes some interesting comments prior to the formation of the DDTCA. Fellows writes, “ Will any of you who are interested in belonging to a Dandie Dinmont Terrier Club, please send me your names and addresses, that you may be sure to be notified of the meeting that will be held in the not - too - distant future with an idea of getting together and forming a club for the benefit of the little Dandie and the people who breed and own them. ” In another column, which appears to be from 1932, Elizabeth Fellows writes, “ At Westminster we made a start toward the formation of a Dandie Dinmont Club and hope by summer to actually be in existence. Anyone interested in our breed is invited most cordially to become a member. ” According to an interesting article, “ The Dandie Dinmont Club of America: Thirty years of Progress, ” published in Popular Dogs in 1962, “… the Dandie Dinmont Club of America held its first formal meeting in February, 1932.” And in her column dated July 29, 1932, Elizabeth Fellows writes, “ The officers of our Dandie Dinmont Club are as follows: President, R. Stockton White; Vice -

President, Mrs. E. Dimon Bird; Secretary - Treasurer, Miss Esther Bird, Board of Governors: The officers and Harry T. Peters, Jr., Mrs. N. Warren Fellows, Miss Katherine White, Miss Mary Johnson. ” The very first meetings of the club took place in Greenwich, Connecticut, presumably at the home of Esther Bird but in 1935 the club started meeting at Madison Square Garden in New York City. [From the 1933 Report of the Secretary - Treasurer (Esther Bird), dated February 7th, 1934 we learn the club certainly had the hope and intention of joining the AKC:

From the 1933 Report of the Secretary - Treasurer

From Esther Bird ’ s Minutes of the 1935 Meeting of the club, we learn that joining the American Kennel Club remained an aspiration, but was inconvenienced by an uncertainty of funding:

From Esther Bird ’ s Minutes of the 1935 meeting

In her minutes of the 1936 meeting of the club, Miss Bird notes, “ The Secretary, Miss Bird reported the second appearance in the American Kennel Club Gazette , the application for membership in the American Kennel Club. ” Although, sometimes erroneously reported in club literature, the club became an active member of the AKC not in 1935, but 1936. This is indicated in the “ Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors of the American Kennel Club ” from February 12, 1936, “ Application for membership from Dandie Dinmont Terrier Club of America, which has been approved by our Board of Directors ” and “ Delegate ’ s credentials of Wm. W. Brainard, Jr., to represent Dandie Dinmont Terrier Club

Mustard & Pepper

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Fall 2022