This article is from the WSSF 2017 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Karen Robbins

RE: Mouse History Books, Shows & More, WSSF 2014
I now have the History of the Fancy page online. This is an archive of newspapers, magazines, and books pertaining to the fancy, with emphasis on the U.S.A. In doing years of research (which is still ongoing), I’ve found there were 7 clubs from 1898 to 1959. All were mouse clubs with the exception of the American Mouse and Rat Fancier’s Association (AMRFA) in 1941. Four were around during the turn of the 20th century when the N.M.C. in England was getting going in 1895. Then there was a break before two more showed up in 1936 and 1941. Then another long break before the arrival of another American Mouse Club in 1959 which only lasted into the early 1960s. Unfortunately, most of these clubs only lasted a few months to a couple years. During the in-between times, there were articles in the U.S.A. All-Pets magazine about the need for a mouse club with the authors trying to rally people together to get something started. There was another long break before the Southern California Mouse and Hamster Breeders got together in 1975. This was not an official club but just a group of fanciers that put on shows. They then officially became the Mouse and Rat Breeders Association in 1978. From there was the American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association (us) in 1983 along with many clubs since, of which most are now defunct as you can see in the Some Other Clubs That Have Come and Gone in the U.S.A. section of the page. Following are the clubs I’ve found so far in the U.S.A.

This club was organized February 4, 1898, during the New York Poultry and Pigeon Association exhibition. H. C. Scheel of NY was elected the President. Although this fact got lots of coverage in several newspapers all the way to July 1901, there were never any articles about shows or other events they put on. The article February 4, 1900, Mice As Pets: Variety of Color That Has Been Obtained by Skillful Breeding tells that the AMC had members all over the country. This same article says that mice were sent from the N.M.C. to the U.S.A. (doesn’t say to who) and that the AMC is the latest addition to clubs here.

This club was founded by John H. Grube in Albany along with several prominent Chicago Women—Mrs. Leland Norton, founder and president of the Chicago Cat club and Mrs. Poyer who owned the Northwestern Rabbitry, were some of the main ones mentioned. Not sure exactly when it was founded as the October 27, 1899, article tells that the club was to have a show with the cats and cavies in December, where the November 19, 27, and 28 articles tells of it recently starting and then the December 1 article says it was started the previous week. Mr. Rothmueller of New Hampshire [not sure of his club affiliation as he is mentioned in the USMC article of November 27, 1899, and the February 4, 1900, AMC article] imported the first mice to the U.S.A. Mr. Grube had the largest collection of mice in the U.S.A. in 1899 of which most were imported stock.

This is a different club than the USMC even though they were both in Chicago. There was only one article about this group. This was another Chicago club made up of women, this time most were from the Beresford Cat Club. The efforts of Miss E. C. Copeland started the club. This club was to pay special attention to the breeding of the Himalayan mouse.

This and the NPSAA (below) were similar groups that catered to the small critters—AFFA was on the East Coast where the NPSAA was in the Midwest. The AFFA imported rats in 1898 and imported mice from the N.M.C. in 1903. They held a show at the Madison Square Gardens in New York (may be what is talked about in the January 6, 1904 newspaper article). The AFFA had their own Fancy Mouse Club. They had a 1915 standards book (found online) that had a lot of information in it along with drawings of mouse markings and the Ideal Japanese rat (Hooded).

NPSAA founded 1910, name changed to National Breeders and Fanciers Association of America (NBFAA) in 1917, then in 1925 became the current American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA). While it was the NPSAA and the NBFAA, they included mice and rats among other small animals. This is another club with old archived Standards online from 1915 and 1920.

This group got a lot of newspaper coverage for their shows in 1937 and 1938 that were held with the different cat clubs. It is the only club that had photos of their shows in the newspapers/magazines that I have found. Rev. Ferrier suggested forming an American Mouse and Rat Club in the Dec. 1935 All-Pets magazine. A club was then founded—the American Mouse Fancier’s Club (AMFC).

This club I hadn’t heard of before that was mentioned in the Jan. and Feb. 1941 issues of All-Pets magazines. They had officers in several states on the East Coast and Midwest areas and were going to hold shows with the rabbit/cavy and poultry/pigeon shows, but I don’t know if they ever had a show or how long they lasted.

There were no clubs during 1945. In the April 1945 All-Pets magazine is an article Why Not A Mouse Club? by D. E. Nelson.

This was Richard Pfarr’s group: see the book Modern American Mouse. This was not the same American Mouse Club that was in New York in 1898. This group was founded in California and according to the book, followed the N.M.C. in their standards and used show boxes like theirs. These show boxes were then donated to the Southern California mouse fanciers in 1975 that then went on to form the Mouse and Rat Breeders Association (see below).

This was a local Southern California group that began in 1975 as the Southern California Mouse and Hamster Breeders. Their first show was held January 4, 1976, in Pomona, California. The first show that included rats along with the mice and hamsters was held April 25, 1976, in Ventura, California. After a couple years the hamsters were dropped. It wasn’t until 1978 that an official group was then formed.

The Northeast Rat & Mouse Club, Int’l (NRMCI) was founded by Liz Fucci (AFRMA member) and Gina Loiacono (both were in New York). The NRMCI had several chapters: Little Mouse Club (LMC) – 1999 to 2005 (started out as a chapter of the NRMCI, then went on its own in 1999; the Little Mouse Club also had a Junior Member Chapter [JMC] for kids); Mid-Atlantic Chapter; Des Moines, Iowa, Chapter; New York Chapter – published Potent Rodent; Appalachian Chapter. The Little Mouse Club was run by longtime AFRMA member and fancier Wanda Wilson. Unfortunately, with her death in 2005 was also the death of the club.

This group was for mouse geneticists. C.C. Little in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, founded this group for the exchange of material and information on mutant stock and mouse breeding. They put out a simple Mouse Club newsletter that became the Mouse Newsletter (MNL) that then became the Mouse Genome (now Mammalian Genome).

June 1949 to 1997 – Laboratory Animals Bureau, M.R.C. Laboratories, London, England, put out a Mouse News Letter for the labs around the world to list new genes they found and the articles they had published. MRC Harwell has the Mouse News Letters online.

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Go to History of The Fancy Continued: Clubs In The U.S. 1890