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3.3 Phillips Rating System - Poodles - Top Winners and Producers, 1956-1991

 Sub-Series

Scope and Contents

From the Series:

Dog Show materials include files on the club's Annual Specials/National Specialties from 1935 to 1988. Files through the late 1950s variably include schedules and lineups, lists of winners and approved judges, and all related correspondence on subjects including registration and regulation changes, premium list and catalog production, and the arrangements and disbursement of cash awards and trophies. Later ones also feature premium lists, judges programs, AKC show date and judge approval applications, contracts (many with the Foley Dog Show Organization), financial documents, event layouts, publicity materials, and more.

The collection holds marked catalog pages for many National Specialties, between 1939 and 1955, and a complete run of catalogs from 1966 to 2015, including 1981’s “Golden Anniversary” show. Regional Specialties are also represented through files and/or catalogs from 1970 through 2013.

National and Regional Specialty win shots, dating from the late 1980s, are present in digital and hard copy. VHS and digital videos chronicle National Specialties, including color and black-and-white tranfers from 16mm film footage of several specialties in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as 8mm footage of the 1974 and 1976 specialties and 1972 Westminster. Video documentation of national specialties and and a few noted regional shows, are present from 1989 on, as well as presentations by Annie and James Clark, with handler Frank Sabella.

Photographs and other personal collections of prominent breeders Ruth Wurmser, Edward B. Jenner, and Rebecca "Becky Mason, and handler Ruth Cooper, in addition to a small supply of artifacts -- ribbons, pins, and other awards -- also appear.

Lastly, are the binders assembled of Irene Castle Phillips Khatoonian Schnlintz (d.1963), the original developer of the Phillips Point System. These files chart her determination of the Top 10 Winners (1956-1991) and Top Producer (1965-1991) Sires and Dams of the Toy, Miniature, and Standard Poodle between 1956 and 1991.

Dates

  • 1956-1991

Access Restrictions

Only membership applications and select financial and legal documentation are restricted, as noted in the container list. The collection is otherwise open to all researchers.

Historical note

There was no official ranking system in place for top show dogs until the 1950s arrival of the "Phillips Rating System." Previously compulations were simply based on the number of all-breed BIS won but did not take into account points or other placements.

Irene Castle Khatoonian Phillips (later Schlintz) was an Irish setter breeder and editor at a variety of dog magazines. In 1956, during her tenure at Popular Dogs, she devised a system of allotting each dog points that equalled the total number of competitors defeated by winning Best In Show, Group 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th at an AKC show during each calendar year. This system became essentially deployed by all publications, and the AKC itself..

By 1965, Phillips had assembled enough Top Winners Data to also begin examining for Top Producers. She often published report on this data, and twelve books, in addition to a "Breed Facts" coluumn for Dog News. Her daughter begame "computerizing" the material in 1984, until the system was retired in 1993.

Physical Description

From the Series: 17 Linear feet (in 10 doc boxes; 6 album boxes; and 2 A/V drawers)

Language of Materials

English

Provenance

The files were originally created by Schlintz and her husband Harold. Following her death in 1993, her daughter Jacqueline Phillips Root organized the 123 binders by breed and submitted the relevant files to each parent club. These represent the binders sent to the PCA.

Processing Information

Materials were removed from their original binders and album sleeves, then foldered in their original order.

Creator

Repository Details

Part of the American Kennel Club Library & Archives Repository

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