The Peters Family and Windholme Kennel papers

Windholme Kennels was chiefly operated by Harry S. Peters, Jr., but its over 50-year history of reflects the passion and dedication passed on through three generations of sportsmen and dog fanciers.

Businessman, Americana collector, historian, sportsman, and Westminster Kennel Club chairman Harry Twyford Peters (1881-1948) was born in Greenwich, Connecticut. He inherited considerable wealth and land from his father Samuel T. Peters (1954- 1921), founder of coal business William and Peters and owner of 300 acres of waterfront property on the Great South Bay of Long Island’s Gold Coast. The Peters’ Windholme estate featured a private fishing camp, stable of polo ponies, kennel, gardens, and mansion. Peters Sr. was president of the Long Island riding club and an oriental art connoisseur. Young Harry spent much of his childhood on the shooting grounds and kennels just south of the Westminster club house frequented by his father, when he began working with Beagles and Pointers and formed his lifelong love for horses, dogs, polo and hunting. He later enjoyed a brief stint in the Buffalo Bill show.

Peters established Windholme Kennels at the turn of the century in Islip, Long Island. Champions over the years included an extensive range of breeds including Dalmatians, Beagles, Dachshunds, and Chows. In 1901 his 5-year-old bitch Ch. Windholme’s Bangle, became the first Beagle to win Best in Show and he was generally respected as a breeder successful with both bench and field dogs. Peters became Westminster’s delegate in 1904 and judged numerous shows between 1906 and 1931. He was master of the Meadow Brook Hounds, one of the most famous packs in America in the early 20th-century, between 1925 and 1948.

Harry S. Peters attended Columbia University and held partnership in his father’s business until 1945, also serving tenures as director of the New York Trust Company and the Fairbanks Company. During the first war he was a member of the Fuel Administration and during the second, Civilian Defense Director for Suffolk County. He was an avid collector of sporting prints, earning an international reputation as the foremost expert on Currier and Ives and publishing several collectors guides in addition to other works on lithography. He served as president of the Grolier Club from 1939 to 1943 and in 1947 was awarded the New-York Historical Society’s fifth Gold Medal for Achievement in History for his contributions to the history of the graphic arts and social history. At his death in 1948 he was one of the oldest living members of the Westminster Kennel Club.

His son, Harry T. Peters, Jr. (1910-1981) became involved with the kennel in 1929, shifting priority attention to greyhounds with the procurement of foundation stock Gamecock Dashing Warrior and Gamecock Dancing Witch from George West. Peters, known as “Bud,” won back-to-back wins as owner and handler in Westminster’s newly created Hound Group in 1931 and 1932 with Ch. Gamecock Duke of Wales. The AKC Gazette noted Windholme’s remarkable Westminster successes in 1933 and 1937. The Peters have sometimes been credited with showing the first Bedlington Terrier, Old English Sheepdog, and first pack of Beagles in hunt livery . Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Windholme also engaged in breeding programs in Whippets, Cockers, Pointers, Norwich, Standard Schnauzers, Dandie Dinmonts, and Smooth Fox Terriers.

Peters served as president of the Greyhound and Whippet Clubs of America. In 1938, he became Westminster’s show chairman and immediately brought unique flourish to the event, including the first ever sheep herding demo and the personal employ of Caledonian bagpipers to accompany the performance. He was a highly respected Beagle and Foxhound judge, and judged Westminster nine times between 1950 and 1976, selecting an Old English Sheepdog as Best in Show. His final import was in 1972, and he gradually disbanded the kennel and concentrated on cattle, quarter horses, and sheep until his death in 1981.

Sources: Amy Fernandez, "Windholme Kennel: Putting Greyhounds on the Map," Canine Chronicle, May 2014. Albert K. Baragwanath, "Harry T. Peters: A Collector's Collector," Imprint, November 1977.