Our History
Few museums are devoted to simple ideas that live forever, like love and devotion.
In the early 1970s, interested individuals devoted to dogs met to discuss the possibility of a national museum of art and books focusing on man's best friend. In 1973, the Westminster Kennel Club Foundation conducted a survey to explore the level of support for such a project. While encouraged by the results, it was decided a broader level of support was needed. In 1979, the American Kennel Club Foundation was formed to help meet this need and by 1981, The Dog Museum of America had its first director, William Secord.
With a rapidly growing collection of art and increasing interest by the fancy, it became apparent a permanent and larger space was necessary. In 1985, with the support of the museum's chairman Mrs. Robert V. Lindsay, and president Dorothy Welsh, the board voted to relocate the museum to the historic 1853 Jarville House in West St. Louis County, Missouri, where the newly named The Dog Museum would operate as its own entity. In an effort to ensure its future, a re-affiliation with the American Kennel Club took place in 1995 and the museum was re-named The American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog. Gift donations of art continue to make this unique museum's collection one of the largest in the country.
