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What makes a Museum? - Watch this space!

As most of you will already know, The CFA Foundation made its own mark on history when it established the Feline Historical Museum, in June 2011, on the ground floor of the CFA building in Alliance, Ohio. This was a ground-breaking endeavour, and one which from a historian's viewpoint was long overdue in the realm of cats; as for well over 120 years, no concerted effort had been made by any major registry around the world, to safeguard and pool together, important artifacts and documents relevant to the distant and ongoing history of the fancy.

Silver collar awarded to "COSEY" at the 1895 Madison Square Garden cat show, New York City. From the Collection of The CFA Foundation, Inc.

Under the management of The CFA Foundation's board of directors, the collections housed within the museum have grown exponentially, and the historic value and type of items being catalogued and housed in perpetuity has, likewise, continued to grow at the same or greater exponential rate.

Collections such as these require the donation of both historic items and sometimes cash or bequests in order to be able to grow and to provide professional restoration, ongoing safe storage, meaningful cataloguing, and exhibitions to showcase the plethora of extremely interesting cat fancy related items that form the basis of the collections.

And at times, decisions have to be made to prioritize the work and to ensure that appropriate technologies are used to secure the items in the collection for future generations, and to find ways to manage access to the information they contain, by cat fanciers and researchers alike.

Letter from Harrison Weir to Digby Seymour, dated Jan.18th, 1876, gifting him a copy of his book,'The Poetry of Nature'.
Show Catalogue of the Grand American Cat Show, held in the Horticultural Hall, Boston, Monday Oct.18th, 1883.
Catalogue of the Reading Championship Cat Show,(UK), Wednesday Oct.15th, 1913.
Photo-set courtesy of The Harrison Weir Collection.

The purpose of this section of the site, is to provide another form of access, to those of you who wish to browse items included in the combined collections of both the CFA Foundation's Feline Historical Museum and The Harrison Weir Collection, as well as at other locations around the world. In this sense, this is a Digital Museum, providing a visual and informational pathway to these historic documents, art and articles, which are an important part of the history of the Cat Fancy and the people who have been involved or associated with it.

As time permits, the editors, Karen Lawrence and John Smithson, will add more items to the list below, giving you direct access to the amazing stories behind the documents and artifacts that are part and parcel of the amazing history of the Cat Fancy … so as the heading above suggests … WATCH THIS SPACE!

18th Century

19th Century

20th Century

Supplement to Fur and Feather, Jan.24th, 1913, showing famous Blue Persian cats from the Oaklands Cattery.
Pitcher awarded to Best Cat owned by a member, donated by the Westchester Cat Club, for the World's Fair Cat Show, New York, Oct.27th-28th, 1940.
Signed and numbered segment opposite the title page of Our Cats (1889) by Harrison Weir, from a large format limited edition of only 120 copies world-wide.
Photo-set courtesy of The Harrison Weir Collection.

A Note from the Editors:

The editors invite donations of an historic nature in the form of data, photographs or related club artifacts to The CFA Foundation's Feline Historical Museum. If you feel you have any information, or an item which would add value to our pages celebrating the history of our Clubs, please check the CONTACT page and send us an email.


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©The CFA Foundation, Inc and The Harrison Weir Collection
This project is a collaboration between The CFA Foundation, Inc. and The Harrison Weir Collection.
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