Vintage Women and Their Kennels

For anyone wondering why I regularly focus on women in my posts on the dog fancy around the turn of the century, it’s because misogyny is real. Consider this ad for a dog magazine that ran in The second annual bench show of dogs, official catalogue by The Butterfly Bench Show Association in 1896:

As in all aspects of life, women struggled and fought for a semblance of equal footing within the dog fancy of the era and their successes are therefore noteworthy.


Following is a glance at two kennels owned by ladies, the first in England and the second in New Jersey:

Dogdom, October 1918
Dogdom, October 1918
Dogdom, October 1918
Dogdom, October 1918

Dogdom, October 1918
Dogdom, October 1918
Dogdom, October 1918
Dogdom, October 1918

Here are two profiles of a collie kennel owned by Mrs. Clara M. Lunt and Miss Minnie Bullocke in New York (the kennel was later moved to New Jersey):

The Buffalo Commercial (Buffalo, New York) · 7 Jun 1906, Thu · Page 6
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York) · 1 Aug 1907, Thu · Page 22

A few of Mrs. Lunt’s dogs:

Dogdom, April 1916
Dogdom, April 1916
Dogdom, December 1916
Dogdom, February 1917
Same dog, more grown up, pictured in The Dog Fancier, August 1918

Some years later, when the American Kennel Club refused to accept Mrs. Lunt as a delegate because she was female, prominent dog show judge Frank F. Dole spoke in her favor:

Buffalo Courier (Buffalo, New York) · 12 Jun 1921, Sun · Page 43

In fact, it would take another half century before the AKC finally allowed women to serve as delegates, with many men still opposed to the idea:

Although the AKC refused to accept Mrs. Lunt as a delegate in 1921, she did well for herself the following year by hosting and winning her breed’s national specialty show:

The New York Times (New York, New York) · 21 May 1922, Sun · Page 29

Her imported dog, who also won Best Collie at the Westminster Kennel Club and the NY Collie Club’s specialty show that year:

Dogdom, March 1921
Ad in House and Garden, June 1916

Leave a Reply