Planning a Post-Pandemic Trip? Welcome to the Museum of the Dog!
“Stubby Salutes” (detail) by artist Susan Bahary, at the Museum of the Dog in NYC.
After 30 years in St. Louis, the American Kennel Club’s Museum of the Dog finally returned to New York two years ago. And what a homecoming it’s been!
The Museum’s first year back in New York was a great success with attendance and revenues vastly exceeding previous years in St. Louis. Our arrival also generated a great deal of media buzz, with over 200 press interviews, 2,100 articles, and television appearances reaching nearly 40 million people - though, as any dog can tell you, success is not necessarily measured by numbers.
The Museum of the Dog is conveniently located in the heart of midtown Manhattan, just two blocks from Grand Central Terminal. We look forward to hosting many more visitors as pandemic restrictions are lifted and travel returns to normal. For now, let’s take you on a quick tour.
Enjoy Our Special Exhibitions
You’ll definitely want to make our current special exhibition your first stop. Since its 2019 opening, the Museum has presented several themed shows including Women and Dogs in Art in the Early 20th Century; Photos: Please Do Not Bend: Highlights from the Catherine Johnson Collection; Mush: A Tribute to Sled Dogs from Arctic Exploration to the Iditarod; and Presidential Dogs. Our current exhibition is Hollywood Dogs, which highlights canines in film from the very beginning of the medium through the Golden Age of Hollywood Dogs. Our next special exhibition, Top Dogs, focuses on the Top 10 most popular breeds in the U.S. and opens May 5.
Have Fun with Hands-On Digital Displays
The new Museum offers a number of fun state-of-the-art digital and interactive displays. Most noticeable as you approach the building is the façade projection, featuring silhouettes of dogs walking across the front of the building. There’s also the Find Your Match display, which uses facial recognition to scroll through all 195 AKC-recognized breeds to find the breed you most resemble. Visitors find this one hilarious, especially the younger crew.
Moving into the gallery, you’ll see two Meet the Breeds touch-screen tables. Each features a cavalcade of AKC breeds scrolling across the table. Visitors may pull their favorites into a virtual dog house to learn more about the breeds.
Perhaps the most popular display is the 7-foot-high video screen located in our Dogs on the Job corner. Here, you can train a virtual Labrador puppy named Molly. Using motion-capture technology, we filmed a real Lab who is happy to respond to your verbal and hand commands on screen. It’s fun and educational!
Take in Our Fabulous Dog Art Collection
Though New York is a long way from California, the Museum is proud to display three bronzes by one of the Bay Area’s finest dog artists, Susan Bahary. A renowned sculptor of monuments honoring service animals and their handlers, she created the nation’s first official and iconic war dog memorial, Always Faithful, a cast of which is on display at the Museum. The Museum’s other Bahary works include Smoky, a WWII dog poking out of a GI’s helmet, and Stubby Salutes, which depicts Stubby, a WWI mixed breed terrier who participated in 17 battles and returned home the most decorated dog of that war. Bahary’s sculpture depicts him in his saluting stance that ultimately saved him from being ousted as a stowaway onboard a ship.
The Museum’s move to New York resulted in a number of major new art acquisitions as well, including The Haunt of the Woodcock: Sensation and Bang Bang by the American artist John Martin Tracy, quite possibly one of the most important American dog paintings in existence. Painted circa 1880, it features two of the seminal Pointers from the Westminster Kennel in Long Island, one of whom, Sensation, went on to become the mascot of the Westminster Kennel Club and is featured in its logo.
The Museum also received a donation of Abraham Hondius’s Amsterdam Dog Market (c. 1677), an impressive Old Master canvas with over 50 dogs, and it recently acquired two drawings featuring Skye Terriers, a rare terrier breed that had been underrepresented in the Museum collection.
Our collection continues to grow in exciting ways as we move into 2021. At the start of the year, we obtained two new paintings by Maud Earl, Two Pekingese and The Surrey Staghounds. These pieces are in near-mint condition, and The Surrey Staghounds matches a photogravure in the Museum’s collection from the series Hounds and Gun Dogs. Most recently, the Museum obtained two works by the artist Charles Olivier de Penne featuring French Tricolor Hounds and Gordon Setters.
The Museum further maintains an active art conservation program funded by AKC Parent Clubs and members.
Learn More About Dogs at Our Library and Activity Center
No tour would be complete without a stop in the Museum’s library and activity center. Here, visitors may peruse over 4,000 volumes from the AKC main library and archive. The activity center also hosts lectures, films, and “Meet the Breed” days, as well as popular children’s programming such as “Paws to Read.” We hope to begin in-person programs again as soon as it’s safe to do so.
Finally, Don’t Miss Our Museum Store
Last year’s lockdown led to the creation of an online store, which the Museum opened in April 2020. The store features high-quality and exclusive items for dog lovers young and old. Once we’re back to normal, we’ll be happy to welcome you to our gift shop in person. Until then, please visit Museum of the dog store.
That’s it for our thumbnail tour, but there’s so much more to discover. We hope to see you at the Museum of the Dog soon!