An early-day horse show is pictured in color on this Max Bernstein postcard. It was photographed in the newly completed American Royal Live Stock Building at 23rd and Wyoming streets, erected in 1922. American flags decorate ceiling and supporting posts of each seating section. Many people are seated in the boxes and general admission seats, but hundreds line the railing of the arena to watch as the judging begins. Loula Long will be seen flashing by with her fast horses and stylish vehicles, and the crowd will roar approval as she speeds around and around the arena. A carpeted center of the floor houses loud speakers and the tables of the judges, brought from top animal husbandry departments of universities nationwide. Ribbons will be awarded to horses. Riders stand at the heads of each horse. They have already shown their confirmation, style and disposition circling the arena before judges and spectators. The American Royal Horse Show, according to the late Russell Sage Sr., architect for the Kansas City Stock Yards Co., began in 1899. A first board of directors of the American Royal is to be found in the minutes of a meeting March 2, 1904, when the following officers were elected: C.A. Standard, Emporia, Kansas, president; T.J. Wornall ( a shorthorn cattle breeder), Liberty, Mo., secretary; C.R. Thomas, Kansas City, general manager; H.W. Elliot, Estil, Mo., E.P. Weld, Ovid, Mo. And M.H. Gentry, Sedalia, Mo., vice presidents, and Allen Thompson, Nasua, Mo., superintendent. (The late Allen Thompson was the father of Mrs. Jay Dillingham). This year's horse show will be held in the Kemper Arena, and live stock judging in the old American Royal building, as pictured. Kansas City Times, October 28, 1988.
Reproduction (printing, downloading, or copying) of images from Kansas City Public Library requires permission and payment for the following uses, whether digital or print: publication; reproduction of multiple copies; personal, non-educational purposes; and advertising or commercial purposes. Please order prints or digital files and pay use fees through this website. All images must be properly credited to: "Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri." Images and texts may be reproduced without prior permission only for purposes of temporary, private study, scholarship, or research. Those using these images and texts assume all responsibility for questions of copyright and privacy that may arise.