6. Nell Ayers and Waseeka Kennels scrapbooks, c. 1915-1991

Club administration includes meeting minutes from annual and specialty meetings between 1950 and 1977; committee and individual reports presented to the club between 1947 and 1978; membership lists; distribution materials; and correspondence and business records. In addition to general correspondence arranged chronologically from the 1930s through 1990s, are committee correspondence, such as the Breeder’s List committee, and the personal files of three influential club figures:

The Elinor “Nell” Ayers materials include the private and club correspondences received and sent by Nell Ayers during her years as the NCA secretary and president (1976-1983).

The files of Dryad Kennels co-founder Katherine “Kitty” Drury, dating back to her NCA acceptance in 1932 through her many committee and officer duties (including president), contain some of the club’s oldest preserved materials. Items of particular interest include the original handwritten minutes from the first 20 years of the club and translations of letters from Mrs. Drury's Newfoundland contacts in Switzerland and Germany.

Ingoing and outgoing mail of Dr. Lawrence "Larry" Lerner dates from 1976 to 1977, his tenure as NCA president.

Publications and printed matter includes a nearly complete run and index of Newf Tide, the quarterly publication of the club beginning in 1970, as well as a variety of articles and news clippings (many photocopied) concerning Newfoundlands or dog-related writing. Newf Tide includes conformation results, specialty results, and articles of general interest on topics such as health and history.

The dog shows materials consist of catalogs for National and Regional Specialties between 1967 and 2007, and an extensive assemblage of specialty conformation show and water test catalogs from the 1970s through 1990s, all identified in the collection inventory. Win shots are present for the 1983, 1991, and 1992 specialties.

The breeding and performance history materials contain AKC stud book pages through 1949, assembled lists of Newfoundland title holders in numerous categories, Newfie kennels, and the manuscripts of the three-volume "Newf of Distinction," which includes further title lists and histories, pedigrees, records, certificates, and more of the famous Irwindyl Kennels.

The photographs, given to the NCA by club members, feature a wide collection of Newfoundlands and date as early as the 1920s. The bulk picture famous winning Newfoundlands, shown in candid shots and show poses. About half of the images are accompanied by captions, with identified dogs noted in the inventory.

The four scrapbooks were assembled by Nell Ayers of Seaward Kennels and Waseeka Kennels, two legendary breeders of Newfoundlands who donated the materials to the NCA. Two of the Ayres scrapbooks contain photographs, pedigrees, and registration forms dating back to the founding of Seaward in 1944 by her mother Elinore Ayers-Jameson; the other charts the career of Ch. Seaward's Blackbeard or "Adam," as of the 1980s the most winning Newfoundland of his time, through newspaper clippings. The final scrapbook contains photocopied articles dating c.1915 to 1932 that refer to Waseeka dogs or Newfoundlands in general, as well as photographs of Waseeka, the first large Newfoundland kennel in America, circa 1940.