A Gilded Age For The Fancy: Morris & Essex Returns

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228 – October, 2025

By Sarah Montague

Photos by Lisa Croft-Elliot – 2015

Once every five years, like some kind of enchantment, the Morris & Essex dog show appears on the grounds of Colonial Park in Somerset, New Jersey. The Park’s 685 acres are home to a botanical garden and various recreational activities for the community, but when the dog show takes over, it becomes a vibrant and colorful link between the past and the present.

The past is the original show, created by the heiress, socialite and philanthropist Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge, and held for 30 years, between 1927 and 1957. In addition to founding the show, Dodge was a significant presence in the dog world– a breeder of top German Shepherd Dogs, and influential in establishing the English Cocker Spaniel in the U.S. And, she was the first woman to judge Best In Show at Westminster–in 1933. An admirable profile of Dodge, written by Joan Harrigan, can be found on the Morris & Essex Kennel Club website, and does not need to be reproduced here. https://morrisandessexkennelclub.org/

Enter the present, in the form of Wayne Ferguson, founder of the Cherrybrook pet supplies company. He had the idea to revive Dodge’s legendary show after discovering its archives at the site of her former property, Giralda Farms, now an animal welfare society.

Dodge was born just shy of the 20th century, and the modern incarnation of Morris & Essex helped to bring in the 21st. This year will be the sixth show, but in some ways, Ferguson is intent on time–if not dogs–standing still:

He says, “We try to keep them exactly the way she ran them many years ago and we hope that everybody can appreciate how we’re reminding people about what dog shows used to be like.”

What does this mean, precisely?

First of all—quiet.

Click here to read the complete article
228 – October, 2025

Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=340732

Posted by AnthonyA on Oct 24 2025. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.