The Formation of Cat Clubs

Long before any permanent Cat Registry or Governing Body existed, there were Clubs. Before Clubs, there were just Cat Show organizing committees, with private sponsors, who donated their time and money and/or prizes, or awards. A leading example of this, is the Crystal Palace Show of 1875, among the Patrons of which were Mr. Charles Darwin and Lady Dorothy Nevill.

The idea of forming a National Club was first informally discussed at in impromptu assemblage of ladies and gentlemen on the second day of a four day Cat Show, at the Alexandra Palace, on June 15th, 1887. This was followed by a formal General Meeting at the Crystal Palace on 18th October, 1887, when the National Cat Club (N.C.C.) was duly instituted, with Mr. Harrison Weir as its first President, and Miss Gresham as its first Secretary. In the words of a later Chairman, Cyril Yeates, "the Cat Fancy, as we know it today, may be said to date from that year." Upon the resignation of Mr. Weir and Miss Gresham in 1890, they were duly succeeded by Mr. Louis Wain and Mr. J.W. Townsend.

The Beresford Cat Club was one of the earliest cat clubs formed in North America. While the club was based in Chicago, it had members from all over the United States. Beresford was affiliated with the American Cat Associaton (ACA). The club published four volumes of the first studbooks for pedigreed cats in the United States.

The Clubs of today are the backbone of the modern Cat Fancy. It is the Clubs that organize the majority of annual or bi-annual shows, it is the clubs which cultivate membership by individual fanciers and which create an opportunity for socializing between their breeder members, and it is the Clubs which seek to educate all cat fanciers on the finer points of the individual breeds.