The earliest visual portrayals of Bearded Collie-type dogs are in a portrait painted by Gainsborough in 1771, and in a Reynolds portrait from 1772. A description of the breed was published in 1818 in an edition of Live Stock Journal. Bearded Collies were popular working and show dogs at the end of the Victorian era, but they had no breed club and no official standard (a written description of how the breed should look and act). The breed was kept alive by shepherds who valued their working abilities and continued to use them as working sheepdogs.

The development of the modern Bearded Collie is credited to G.O. Willison, who began breeding Beardies for the show ring after World War II. She was instrumental in forming the Bearded Collie Club in Britain in 1955. In 1959 the Kennel Club granted rights to show for Challenge Certificates and Championships. The breed gained in popularity after that.

Bearded Collies first came to the United States in the late 1950s, but none of those dogs were bred. The first litter was born in the U.S. in 1967. By 1969 the Beardie had enough people interested in him that they were able to form the Bearded Collie Club of America. The breed was admitted into the American Kennel Club's Working Group on February 1, 1977. It moved to the Herding Group when that group was established in January 1983. Today the Bearded Collie ranks 104th among the 155 breeds and varieties registered by the AKC.

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