Dog show photographs of Michele Billings, 1960

The A.J. Schoendorf Collection of Dog Show Photography contains dozens of win shots taken at West Coast dog shows judged by A.J. Schoendorf in the mid-20th century.

Schoendorf created photo albums of win shots from shows and classes that he judged, with identifying labels for each photograph. The collection is heavy on hounds, non-sporting breeds, and toy dogs, although each folder contains a variety of breeds. The photographs are 8 inches by 10 inches and each one includes a label with identifying information, including the dog's name, breed, owner, handler, class/title won, show, show location and date. There are some labels that do not have an accompanying photograph.

Breeds or groups most prevalent in the photographs are noted on each folder and in this finding aid's notes section for each folder entry. Also noted for each folder are the existence of photographs taken by Joan Ludwig and whether the photographs have been digitized.

Among the top ring photographers represented are Joan Ludwig, Bill Deopaul, January Studios and Bennett Associates (both of San Francisco), and Cammar (Sherman Oaks).

It appears that some of the albums suffered damage and were disassembled at some point. Some photographs show signs of excess humidity exposure, such as multiple photographs stuck together and ink bleed from the back of a photo onto the following photo. Many labels exist only as photocopies in the collection, presumably due to the inability to remove the labels from the album without damage. The collection includes one partial, badly damaged album.

Photocopies of a few album covers exist with labels detailing the show locations, host names, and dates that were included in the album.