Lauren Giannini photo
The Museum of Hounds & Hunting NA opened its season with a reception for 200 members and guests Saturday evening, May 26, 2013 at Morven Park in Leesburg, Virginia. The Virginia Foxhound Show took place on the grounds the following day.
Visitors viewed new exhibits featuring art and artifacts of the Warrenton Hunt (VA), established in 1887 and celebrating its 125th anniversary. Warrenton’s three current Masters—Kim Nash, Celeste Vella and Rick Laimbeer—graciously sponsored the Member’s Reception.
Museum co-founder Sherman Haight (seated) and former Morven Park Trustee Harry Wilmerding / Lauren Giannini photoThe exhibit will run until next year, with the some of the Warrenton artifacts retiring on June 15, 2013. On display are original Wesley Dennis drawings of comical hunting scenes created for the Warrenton Hunt map. There are portraits of Masters Julian Chilton Keith by Murray Black, Bambe Wilson by Joseph Abbrescia, Russell M. Arundel by Michael Lynes, and Viola Winmill driving her six-in-hand by E. Tuckerman Biays. Nineteen watercolors of Warrenton hounds and one Jack Russell terrier by Michael Lynes are also displayed. The centerpiece of the exhibit is a 1908 painting of Mr. Maddux, first Master of the Warrenton Hunt, by Richard Newton, Jr.
Eclipse award winner Douglas Lees’ black and white photographs from the 1960s to 2010 highlight Warrenton members, huntsmen, and hounds in the field. Two enlarged photos of Mrs. Robert C. Winmill, one of the first ladies of American foxhunting, caught everyone’s attention: Mrs. Winmill in a photo-finish racing sidesaddle and Mrs. Winmill, sidesaddle, with three riders, one being Eugene C. Cunningham, in front of a seemingly two story high hay stack. Other black and white photographs by sporting photographers Marshall Hawkins, Doug Hayes, and Robert M. “Pooch” McClanahan enhance the exhibit. The hunting horns of former huntsmen and Masters of the Warrenton Hunt, including those of Sally Tufts, Baldwin Day Spilman, W. Henry Pool, Russell M. Arundel and Jim Atkins, were of special interest to the many huntsmen touring the exhibit.
In the Huntsmen’s Room, guests watched Pathé News hunting footage of Warrenton from the 1920s. The second half of the DVD shows the Warrenton Hunt today, with interviews of the Masters, huntsmen, and whippers-in explaining mounted hunting with hounds. Well-known fox hunter Francis Green’s hunting diary excerpts printed in the local Fauquier Democrat were recreated for easy reading in the Huntsman’s Room, as was the 1932 Washington Post pictorial spread of Julian C. Keith’s eightieth birthday celebration where he donned his scarlet coat to celebrate the day.
Other memorabilia include Warrenton’s very own Hunt Song by W. B. Streett, point-to-point programs, trophies and diaries. The Museum of Hounds and Hunting NA located in the Mansion at Morven Park is open most days of the week, 11 to 4. It is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays and some holidays. More information is available at the Museum website and on Facebook.
Posted June 4, 2013
Well known writers/authors on the sporting scene, John Anderson (left) and Bob Ashcom / Lauren Giannini photo