The American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog at 101 Park Avenue
When I was walking the neighborhood of Murray Hill for my blog, “MywalkinManhattan.com, I came across on one of the side streets tucked into a new office building on Park Avenue, The American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog at 101 Park Avenue. This unique little museum is two floors of art dedicated to the story of the dog.
The first floor features small fossils that show the early domestication of dogs during prehistoric times with humans. They may have used them for hunting and companionship. You could see this in the burials and in the wall paintings found all over the world that they partnered with early man and helped shape their world.
The American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog collection
Most of the paintings were from the Victorian Age (post Civil War to WWI) where the romanticized view of nature and of pet companions was emphasized. One both the first and second floor there were all sorts of paintings of various breeds of dog in all sorts of playful and working environments. There were dogs for hunting and sport, dogs as pets and dogs in playful position reacting with their masters and each other.
The Victorian approach to pets
The was also porcelain figurines of dogs, statuary and trophies from various Canine Clubs all over the country. It shows the history of the dog as show with breeding and disposition counting of the way the animal was raised and trained.
The second floor had another series of paintings, a lot from the same time period and some contemporary artist’s take on modern dog owners and their relationship with their pets.
Canine Porcelains line the staircase
Also on the second floor was exhibition on ‘Presidential Dogs”, with the first families relationship with their dogs (and cats too) and the role that they played in White House politics. Truthfully outside of “Socks”, the Clinton’s cat, I never knew of any of the White House pets. I knew the both the Roosevelts and Kennedy’s had lots of pets in the White House, I never heard of their names or seen their pictures. So that was an eye opener.
White House pets tell their own story
Also in a special case was small fancy dog houses and dog holders for travel which was interesting to see how small dogs could travel with their masters and the expense to create a way for them to travel. These were very elaborate. I thought of some of the items I used to see at Bergdorf-Goodman when I worked there with the Ralph Lauren tote bags and fur lined sweaters and thinking this was a little much.
The museum also has a small gift shop on the first floor near the entrance that you should check out. There is all sorts of books and art work to look through and knick-knacks to buy with a dog them. The staff is also very nice and very welcoming.
The entrance to the museum and gift shop has a nice contemporary feel to it
History of the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog:
The American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog preserves, interprets and celebrates the role of the dogs in society and educates the public about the human-canine bond through its collection of art and exhibits that inspire engagement with dogs.
The Museum logo
Founded in 1982, the AKC Museum of the Dog was originally located in the New York Life Building at 51 Madison Avenue as a part of the AKC headquarters. In 1987, the Museum of the Dog was moved to a new location in Queeny Park, West St. Louis County, Missouri. After over 30 great years at Queeny Park, the decision was made to bring the Museum back to its original home and reunite it with the AKC headquarters and collection.
Combining fine art with high-tech interpretive displays, the Museum of the Dog’s new home at 101 Park Avenue hopes to capture the hearts and minds of visitors. Located in the iconic Kalikow Building, the Museum will offer rotating exhibits featuring objects from its 1,700 piece collection and 4,000 volume library.
I made my first visit to the Museum of Sex in New York City and highly recommend it. I have to admit it is different but what I like about the museum is that it doesn’t try to hide the subject and it also just doesn’t jump out at you. It is an interesting progression in art and I saw this in the exhibition “The History of Pornography”, where the films were set up in order since the Victorian times. Sometimes it had to go underground due the times but pornography has been around since the days of the media.
The exhibition shows early pictures and viascopes of sexual acts and the early films date back to the Silent era. The exhibition covers from the Silent era to present times and the advancement of sex in films once the Hayes Code was broken in the 1960’s. With the relaxed rules and the mainstream films of “Tie Me Up Tie Me Down” and “Deep Throat”, you can see the progression of this as an art form and progression of the way the films were made.
Another great exhibition that I saw was “Punk Lust: Raw Provocation 1971-1985”. This show matches nicely with the current show on the “Punk Movement” at the Museum of Arts & Design. It was interesting to see the posters, flyers, clothes and hear the music of the era. Just at the height of the ‘Sexual Revolution’ and into the fragments of the Disco era came a new sound and way to dress that started in the early 80’s before the progression of the Reagan years in Washington DC, this movement came with a new sound with Punk, New Wave and Technographic and a new way to dress provocative without being too revealing.
“Punk Lust” exhibition
As the museum was quoted saying: “The survey looking at the way Punk Culture used the language of sexuality, both visually and lyrically, to transgress and defy, whether in the service of political provocation, raw desire or just to break through the stifling gender norms and social expectations that punks refused to let define them.”
“Punk Lust” exhibition
On a more recent trip to the museum, three exhibitions were open and all very interesting, highlighting different types of eroticisms. These countered different parts of the artworld. Also, in the post-COVID era, all the interactive displays opened up and I was able to visit and experience each of these as well. These are the most fun!
The Andy Warhol exhibition:
“Looking at Andy Looking” exhibition:
(from the museum website)
This exhibition will explore themes of intimacy and voyeurism, including the depiction of homosexual desire, in Warhol’s early years of filmmaking. In films and footage from 1963-64, we witness the artist beginning to figure out what he could do and say with his newest plaything: the 16mm camera.
“Looking at Andy Looking”
(from the museum website)
Filmmaking is a mechanical art, but it can capture real people on the surface and below. Andy Warhol (1928-1987) lived much of his life “on the surface.” He embraced mechanical techniques like screen-printing, photography, and film, but Andy himself was not a machine. Behind the cool, detached persona was the highly personal—and above all queer—perspective of an inveterate experimenter.
The exhibition I saw was the “Artifact” exhibition from the Museum of Sex’s collection of items exploring how we look at sexual encounters. What is sex and how does a play a role in our lives?
“Artifact: Selection from a Secret Collection”
(from the museum website)
Gathered from the Museum of Sex’s permanent collection of more than 15,000 objects as well as from other notable collections and institutes of antiques, medical history and sexology, Artifact (xxx): Selections from Secret Collections presents an intimate exploration of how sex manifests across culture through art, science, and design. An early vibrator made in Great Britain, a lotus shoe worn by a woman in China, and a Braille issue of Playboy magazine provide insight into prevailing belief systems and societal taboos across geography and time.
Hugh’s Hefner’s smoking jacket
Jeweled Bra
(from the museum website)
Fulfilling a wide range of functions from artwork, medical devices and pop-culture mementos to guidebooks and accessories used for enhancing pleasure or pain, these objects tell the stories of the expansive yet nuanced influence of sexuality throughout history.
Candy pants from the 1970’s
Deep Throat Memorabilia
The memory of the movie a movie ‘Deep Throat’’
Intercourse Chair
Another exhibition that I enjoyed on my last trip to the Museum of Sex was the “I Licked it, It’s Mine” exhibition on exotic paintings and sculpture.
The ‘Licked it, it’s Mine’ exhibition sign
(from the museum website)
What does it mean to be “consumed” by lust, or to “possess” another? The artists Oh de Laval, Shafei Xia, and Urara Tsuchiya explore every manner of appetite, from sublimated yearning to all-consuming hunger. United by an irreverent, tongue-in-cheek approach to the erotic and a flair for fantasy, the paintings and ceramic sculptures in this exhibition move between pulpy melodrama and decorative daintiness.
Along the way, sexuality is experienced as love, but also as competition, involving our animal natures—and sometimes even the swapping of human and animal roles.
The gallery for ‘I licked it, it’s mine’ exhibition
The literature from the exhibition explaining the works
These were some of my favorite works from the exhibition:
The exotic works
The unusual works
The unique paintings and ceramics
One of my favorite pieces from the exhibition. I thought this was quite exotic.
I walked next through Carn-O-Rama and experienced the workings behind the scenes of a traveling carnival reaching the suburbs. I always thought it was just lights, rides and cotton candy. There is more to it than that.
After my visits to the three galleries, I took a took to the interactive section of the museum and experienced Funland, where I walked though Stardust Lane and all the lights and sounds of the mirrored rooms.
A Video walk through Funland is a lot of fun. It really pleases the senses.
I next took a trip to Super Funland and this was my trip through Stardust Lane. This is all lights and mirrors and it was an unusual walk through the museum that challenges the senses. Walking through Super Funland is a voyage in the wild with mirrors and music.
It get pretty interesting walking through here.
In another video walk through of Funland, I met a lot of interesting people on my walk through the museum. It really puts you into a interesting mood.
The pathway around the museum took me to other interactive exhibitions. Jump for joy was a very interesting interactive world of different sexual parts and mood lighting.
The ‘Jump for Joy’ exhibition
Then I walked through ‘Lucky Land’
Then I walked through and climbed ‘The Pink Palace’, a series of colored features that led through what looked like another sexual parts. This is called the ‘ClimbX”.
The colored building blocks of the exhibition of “ClimbX”
The colored blocks of the exhibition “ClimbX”
Another object to climb through on your way out of the exhibition.
It really is an interesting museum to visit. You really have to stop and enjoy the pleasures of each floor. You have to take the time experience all the sights and sounds. The funny part of leaving the museum is that there is an exotic food vendor on Fifth Avenue with the most unusual items he sells.
The Erotic Waffle food truck just outside the museum. Not your kids food truck. The truck sold sexual organ pastries, waffles and other exotic items. You have to stop by when you are in the neighborhood!
History of the Museum of Sex:
(This comes from the Museum of Sex History Website)
The Mission of the Museum of Sex is to preserve and present the history, evolution and culture significance of human sexuality. The museum produces exhibitions, publications and programs that bring the best of current scholarship to the wildest possible audiences and is committed to encouraging public enlightenment, discourse and engagement.
The Museum of Sex
The Beginning:
When the Museum of Sex first emerged on New York City’s Fifth Avenue on October 5th, 2002, it was without precedent in the museum world. In the development of its inaugural award winning exhibition NYCSEX: How New York Transformed Sex in America, the Museum created a board of comprised of leading scholars and historians. The Museum’s advisory board has guided curators and guest curators towards research resources, pertinent collections and exhibition relevant artists. Advisors such as Steven Heller, Timothy J. Gilfoyle, PhD, Mike Wallace PhD and June Reinisch, Director Emeritus for The Kinsey Institute for Research on Sex, Gender and Reproduction as well as institutional collaborations with New York University’s Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, New York Historical Society and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum have contributed to making the Museum of Sex one of the most dynamic and innovative institutions in the world.
Design has played a pivotal role in both exhibition development and execution with world-renowned design firms such as Pentagram Design Inc, Casson Mannand 2×4, helping to transform the galleries and historic building over the last six years. The museum’s building, built in the area of New York formerly known as the “Tenderloin,” a district of NYC made notorious by the 19th century for its bordellos, dance halls, theaters and saloons, serves as a New York City landmarked site.
Our Work:
Since its inception, the Museum of Sex has generated over 30 exhibitions and 6 virtual installments, each in keeping with the Museum’s mission of advocating open discourse surrounding sex and sexuality as well as striving to present to the public the best in current scholarship, unhindered by self-censorship. With each new exhibition, lecture series, event and publication, the Museum of Sex is committed to addressing a wide range of topics, while simultaneously highlighting material and artifacts from different continents, cultures, time periods and media.
Our Collection:
The Museum’s permanent collection of over 20,000 artifacts is comprised of works of art, photography, clothing and costumes, technological inventions and historical ephemera. Additionally, the museum houses both a research library as well as an extensive multimedia library, which includes 8mm, Super 8mm, 16mm, BETA, VHS and DVD’s. From fine art to historical ephemera to film, the Museum of Sex preserves an ever-growing collection of sexually related objects that would otherwise be destroyed and discarded due to their sexual content.
Our Public:
In a short time, the Museum has received attention from academic institutions, major publications, media outlets and celebrities, positioning the Museum of Sex within the realm of academia and pop culture alike. The Museum has been featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Esquire and Time and on television broadcasts ranging from CNN to IFC to NBC’s Law & Order Criminal Intent. Award-winning advertising campaigns in print and television media have sealed the Museum’s arrival as a cultural touchstone.
Accolades continue to pour in from visitors and the press in every corner of the world, inspiring the Museum of Sex to continually surpass its own high expectations. Future planned exhibitions and events-the likes of which have never been offered by any other institution-are guaranteed to captivate and resonate, securing the Museum of Sex a well-deserved, distinguished place in history (Museum of Sex History)
I have been visiting Carl Schurz Park many times while walking the neighborhood for my project, “MywalkinManhattan.com”. You can see the entries from Days One Hundred and Ten, Six, Four and Two. I also visited again when touring Gracie Mansion for this blog, “VisitingaMuseum” (see write up under Gracie Mansion).
The entrance to Carl Schurz Park in the Summer of 2024
The park is such a nice place to relax in the warmer months. Being so close to the river in the winter months when the wind kicks in from the river can be brutal. In the Spring and Summer, it is one of the nicest parks to just sit and relax in. During the day, it is fun to watch the kids play in the large playground in the middle of the park. On the weekends the place is packed with kids, parents, and nannies all vying for space.
The Cherry Blossoms at the entrance of the park.
The same spot on the first day of Summer 2024
The gardens are beautiful and are very nicely maintained between the City and the Carl Schurz Park Association, who I have seen members weeding, landscaping and planting in the park during the times of my visits. It is relaxing to just sit by the river and watch the river go by and the boats sail by in the warmer months.
The entrance to the park.
The flowers return during each part of the season almost on cue and the park is awash with colors of daffodils, tulips, irises and tiger lilies. There are many flowering plants in the summer that add to the rainbow of colors that accent all the trees. It is a nice place to sit and read a book while watching people walk their dogs.
The back of the park in Spring 2024.
At twilight, it is fun to watch the lights go on in Queens across the river and the whole city come to life again in the evening. In the warm summer months, the kids are playing in the park, residents have their dogs running around the Dog Run and you can hear the activity at Gracie Mansion. Trust me, security is tight in that section of the park.
The Tulip Garden at the back of the park.
The same garden in the Summer of 2024
The pathways by the playground in the Summer of 2024
The paths that line East 84th Street to York Avenue
The Polly Gordon Walk sign in the front gardens
The Polly Gordon Walkway in the Summer of 2024
This is a nice residential park to relax in when you visiting the Upper East Side.
The walkways in Carl Schurz Park in the Summer of 2024
The History of Carl Schurz Park:
Carl Schurz Park, named by the Board of Alderman in 1910 for the soldier, statesman and journalist Carl Schurz (1829-1906), overlooks the turbulent waters of Hell Gate. The first known Dutch owner of the land was Sybout Claessen, who was granted the property in 1646 by the Dutch West India Company. Jacob Walton, a subsequent owner, built the first house on the site in 1770. During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Army built a fort surrounding the Walton residence to guard the strategic shipping passage of Hell Gate. After the British attack on September 8th, 1776, the house was destroyed and the Americans were forced to retreat from the fort, which the British retained until the end of the war in 1783.
Looking at the park from the East River walkway.
The land was purchased from Walton’s heirs in 1798 by Archibald Gracie, a Scottish shipping magnate. He built a mansion there in 1799, where his illustrious guests included future United States President, John Quincy Adams and future French King Louis Phillippe. The estate, sold by Gracie in 1819 was acquired by the City from the Wheaton family in 1891. The first home of the Museum of the City of New York from 1924-32, the mansion served as the official residence of New York’s mayor’s since Fiorello LaGuardia moved there in 1942.
Gracie Mansion during my tour of the mansion in 2025
The southern portion of the park was set aside by the City as East River Park in 1876. The former Gracie estate was added in 1891 and a new landscape design by Calvert Vaux and Samuel Parsons was completed in 1902. Maud Sargent re-landscaped the park in 1939 when the East River Drive underpass was under construction. Charles Haffen’s sculpture of Peter Pan, created in 1928 for a fountain in the lobby of the old Paramount Theater was installed in the park in 1975.
Carl Schurz Park in the Summer
The park name honors Schurz, a native of Cologne, Germany. It was strongly supported by the large German community of adjacent Yorkville. After emigrating to the United States in 1852, Schurz quickly made his reputation as a skilled orator and proved to be instrumental to Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 election campaign. His most significant political offices were that of United States Senator from Missouri (1869-1875) and Secretary of the Interior (1877-81) during the Hayes administration. In later years, Schurz was editor of the New York Tribune and an editorial writer for Harper’s Weekly. Schurz is also honored by Karl Bitter’s statue of 1913, located in Morningside Drive and 116th Street.
Recent improvements include rebuilding of the stairs, the complete restoration of the playground and the opening of Carl’s Dog Run. These and other projects, including the planting of flowers, have been accomplished through a partnership between the Parks and the Carl Schurz Park Association, which has demonstrated the community’s commitment to restoring, maintaining and preserving this park since it formed in 1974.
I visited The Frick Collection for the first time when I was walking the Upper East Side for my project, “MywalkinManhattan” Day One Hundred and Twelve-Walking the Upper East Side”. In all the years I had been coming into Manhattan I had never been inside. So I stopped for the afternoon to see what it was like inside the old Frick Mansion.
When you first walk into the museum, in the inside of the main foyer of the house there is fountain with a large indoor pool with benches, the perfect place to relax after the long walk outside. All around the pool are various doors and windows that lead to the rooms that house the collection.
The Fountain area
All around the house you will see famous Old Master’s paintings, statuary and porcelain figurines. While I was visiting there, I stopped in to see the new exhibition “George Washington Statuary Collection”.
The “George Washington” exhibition showed the creation of the statue for the Virginia State Capital that was destroyed by fire in the last century. All of the models and drawings were accompanying the display to see how the work was created.
After that, I just walked through the galleries to see all the paintings and sit by the fountain in the middle of the old house. Each of the rooms houses each part of the Mr. Frick’s Collection plus new pieces that continue to be added.
The inside galleries
Before you leave, remember to check out their gift shop which has interesting items for sale and copies of the art in various forms to take home. Also on a nice day take time to walk around the gardens. For a mansion on Fifth Avenue, it is cared for beautifully and is well cared for just as the Frick’s would have done.
History of The Frick Collection:
The Frick Collection is house in the former residence of Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), which was designed by Thomas Hastings and constructed in 1913-14. After Mrs. Frick’s death in 1931, changes and additions to the building were by the architect John Russell Pope and in 1935 the Collection was opened to the public.
The Collection preserves the ambiance of Mr. Frick’s private house and visitors are therefore asked to observe regulations necessary for protecting the works of art and their domestic setting:
*Because few ropes or cases are used to guard fragile objects, children under ten are not admitted to the Collection.
Inside the Frick Collection
*Group visits are by appointment only and large groups must be divided into parties of no more than ten. Lecturing in the galleries is prohibited.
*Free checking is provided in the coat room. Coats (if not worn), packages, umbrellas and large handbags must be checked.
The Collection includes some of the best known paintings by the greatest European artists, major works of sculpture (among them one of the finest groups of small bronzes in the world), superb eighteenth-century French furniture and porcelains, Limoges enamels, Oriental rugs and other works of remarkable quality.
Inside the Frick Collection
Disclaimer: This information was taken directly from The Frick Collection Museum pamphlet and I give the museum full credit for this information. Please check out times and dates before you visit.
Visiting a Museum: The Unique, Unusual, Obscure and Historical 