Southampton History Museum Catalogs “Tails Of Southampton”

“Unless one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened,” the French writer Anatole France said at the turn of the last century. The quote is fittingly used to advertise the Southampton Historical Museum’s current exhibit, “Puppies, Ponies & Pussycats: Tails of Southampton” at the Rogers Mansion in Southampton Village, which remains on view throughout the fall including over SouthamptonFest weekend, September 30 through October 1.

Southampton residents began immortalizing their pets in photographs and paintings around 1870, the museum noted, but the trend is much older than that. Archeologists found dogs on leashes depicted in hunting scenes in northwestern Saudi Arabia rock art from the 7th and possibly the 8th millennium BC.

As time evolved, so has our love of domesticated animals. Dogs went from helping the family with chores like fetching food and protection from predators, to loving members of the family.

Sometimes, animals have taken the place of humans in relationships. Everyone has heard someone say, “My dogs are like my children.”

Curator and Southampton History Museum Executive Director Tom Edwards said his idea for an exhibit honoring pets wasn’t new. “I did a similar one in Massachusetts 30 years ago and wanted to do another in Southampton,” he said. “The pandemic has been so depressing for everyone. I thought this year would be the time to have some fun.”

Captain Albert Rogers inherited the property, which had been in his family since 1645 as part of the founding families of Southampton and built the Victorian Era mansion in 1843. The captain made his fortune whaling and spent many rough years at sea, so it’s ironic that he died from an accident sustained while helping to process a whale on the beach, after he retired, in 1854.

In 1889 his family sold the property to Dr. John Nugent a founding doctor of Southampton Hospital, who operated his practice from the home. Ten years later, the good doctor sold it to Sam Parrish, the founder of the Parrish Art Museum, who doubled the square footage of the mansion and moved it back 100 feet.

Today, green wicker furniture invites guests to sit on the porch facing west behind Main Street.

Of the 22 rooms, “Puppies, Ponies and Pussycats” occupies one of the first-floor parlors, which the museum has dedicated to changing exhibits. Otherwise, the home remains as if Samuel Parrish stepped out to the market.

The mixed media show features approximately 200 items. Pets of all sorts take the form of paintings, prints, postcards, sculptures, tableware, toys, and piggy banks, although interestingly, no piggies. There is a rooster bank.

A three-inch thick brass dog collar made in France, and donated by Henry Francis du Pont, is one of the more unique displays. The heavy object is also shown in a photograph, placed around a St. Bernard’s collar. In case the animal was attacked by wolves or some other wildlife, the predator would not be able to bite its neck.

Basset hounds Blanchette and Ramono stare directly at the viewer from a sober canvas, hanging above a rocking horse, on loan from museum volunteer Julie Adams. We assume the dogs, painted by Emile Bujon in 1831, are siblings, and want a walk, or a treat, by the innate pleading gaze only a hound could pull off.

A circa 1915 photo in an oval frame, on loan from the Bridgehampton Museum, depicts “Paul’s Adventure,” the Clowes’s family cat at the prow of a rowboat. The black cat has a white notch in his neck. The rower is wearing all white with a black bow tie.

In addition to accepting loans from other historical societies, and digging into their own archives, the museum reached out to the community for their input and received 50 photos of pets and their people.

Too many to hang on the walls, museum staff made a video, which can be viewed next to the “For Sale Room.” The nook features work for sale by local artists Dinah Maxwell Smith and Kimberly McSparran, both longtime pet portrait painters.

“Winnie, the Koi Watcher” is one of McSparran’s paintings, offered for $2,500. “I licensed the use of the painting to Ariel of France, a company that sells printed canvases. It was picked up by Anthropology and has sold all over the country,” she said. “I get many emails asking for a print of it when people come across the painting in a vintage shop and find my name.”

McSparran noted that dog people are breed specific when making purchases. Westies, in the case of Winnie. Cat people will buy anything with a cat on it.

The artist’s private pet commissions range from $1,000 to $5,000 depending on size. She prefers to work on larger canvases in order to capture the essence of the dog. “It really is the eyes and the snoot which are the most important features,” McSparran said. “Once you get that right, the painting comes to life.”

In a show of true anthropomorphism, Rachelle Oatman painted the star of the show, “The K-Nine Committee.” A yellow lab, wearing lobster pants and navy blazer, stands with his paws around a French bulldog wearing an extravagantly beaded, green gown and pink clutch and a Cavalier King Charles spaniel in a silky blue halter, pose on the red carpet of a Stony Brook Southampton Hospital fundraiser.

A chance meeting between Edwards and Oatman on the grounds of the Rogers Mansion last summer led to the loan. “Just like that, without looking her up. I could tell by the way she expressed herself that her artwork would add a little spice to the exhibit,” he said.

“My intent was to show how our deep love of animals has changed little over the past 150 years,” Edwards said of his curatorial duties. “The exhibit brings together our shared romance with those amazing beings that are in our care.”

“Puppies, Ponies & Pussycats: Tails of Southampton” will be on view at the Southampton History Museum, 17 Meeting House Lane, Southampton, through December 31. For more information, visit southamptonhistory.org.