We’ve told you many wonderful stories with collections of historical photos from different times, or with photos of the cutest cats on the Internet. It’s time to combine these two amazing things into one combo collection. So now, please meet The Cats of Yore!
This is probably the largest online collection of vintage photos and images of cats – at least, I haven’t come across more complete and so nostalgic collections. Nostalgic even more so because all the cats you’ll see in these photos have already gone into eternity, but the joy they once gave to their humans remains for many years and decades.
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#1
Morning and evening, 1898. From The Angora Cat: How to Breed, Train, and Keep It. By Robert Kent James, 1898. From the Library of Congress.
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#2
Little boys. 💕 Postcard from my collection, unsent, 1902.
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#3
I’m in ur sink, questioning ur decor choices. Photo from my collection, ca. 1960s.
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#4
“Miss Iris Davis… spends a great deal of time recovering cats with the aid of a “lassoo” from the debris of bombed house. So far she has rescued six hundred of these feline strays, 8 November 1940.“ From the Imperial War Museums’ online photograph collection
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#5
Very fancy potato postcard from my collection, date unknown.
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#6
Proud. 🏆 Photo from my collection, ca. 1970s
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#7
His Majesty. Postcard from my collection, mailed 1907.
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#8
Beautiful scene in Scotland. By Mary Ethel Muir Donaldson, ca. 1920s.
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#9
This meeting of the High Council of Tater Tots has been brought to order. Undated, from the Upplandsmuseet in Uppsala, Sweden
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#10
Here is an angel of summer coming to give you hope in this freezing month! 🌼 Photo from my collection, ca. 1970s.
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#11
This is a photo from a sweet and funny book called The Silent Miaow by Paul Gallico with photos by Suzanne Szasz. It’s a cute manual that teaches stray cats how to train humans and get them to let you move in and take over. 1964.
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#12
Mother, no. Photo from my collection, no date or other info.
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#13
“Mary, posed by a small Christmas tree.” Ca. 1935. Photo by Ephraim Burt Trimpey. From the Wisconsin Historical Society.
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#14
Christmas explosion with two cats. Photo from my collection, 1972.
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#15
A Beauty, 1901. 🍐 From the Auckland Libraries, accessed thanks to the DigitalNZ project.
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#16
Before the internet kittens had to call everyone individually to explain how small and cute they were. Unknown photographer, ca. 1920 – 1935. From the online collection of the Powerhouse Museum – a collective of museums in Sydney, Australia.
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#17
“Toodles the cat celebrated his 18th birthday on St. Patrick’s Day in 1940. A stout 19 pounds, he is deaf and beginning to lose his teeth. Toodles is set in his ways and doesn’t like his daily routine interrupted, especially… his afternoon nap.” 1940. From the Tacoma Public Library online digital collections.
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#18
Showing bottle ships to kittens is a top tier hobby. Photo of Jakob Olaussen by Kjell Søgård, 1967. From the Norwegian Forestry Museum in Elverum, Norwa
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#19
Snug. ☺️ From April’s Kittens, written and illustrated by Clare Turlay Newberry. 1940.
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#20
Three cats. Three of them. All cats. Photo by Hilding Mickelsson, undated. From the Hälsingland Museum in Hudiksvall, Sweden
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#21
Dancer Lisan Kay worshipping her cat. 1942. From the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library Digital Collections.
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#22
Superb mixed bean salad. 🫘 Photo from a book in my collection: The Book of Kittens, edited by Brant House, 1951.
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#23
Proposal for Sistine Chapel redesign. Photo from my collection, no date/info.
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#24
Two cool ladies (roommates??) and a small pal. Photo from my collection, ca. 1930s.
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#25
Cat in Cherry Tree. Wood engraving print by Eileen Mayo, 1947. From the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
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#26
Warming the beans. 🥰 Photo from my collection, ca. 1950s.
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#27
A Beauty, 1901. 🍐 From the Auckland Libraries, accessed thanks to the DigitalNZ project.
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#28
Boy with cat. Photo taken in Natal, South Africa by Constance Stuart Larrabee, 1949. From the Smithsonian online virtual archives
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#29
This photo says “Edna Wilke” on the back and I hope that was the name of the kitten. Photo from my collection, ca. 1950s.
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#30
A greeting for negligent penpals and procrastinating authors. Postcard from my collection, 1911.
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#31
Noir goddess. Photo from my collection, no date/info
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#32
Just a little guy. Photo from my collection, no date/info.
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#33
Portrait of a beloved loaf. Photo by John Holyland, ca. 1865 – 1880. From the Maryland Center for History and Culture.
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#34
Two cats, by Walter Inglis Anderson ca. 1940. From the Walter Anderson Museum of Art Permanent Collection.
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#35
So, attacking “cat ladies” as a way of disenfranchising women is not exactly a new tactic in the United States. Women were frequently portrayed mockingly as cats and man-hating cat ladies in anti-suffrage propaganda over a century ago. Some of these portrayals might seem flattering to us today, but at the time representing women as cats was intended to infantilize and demean them as being silly creatures incapable of serious political discourse. Here are just a few of innumerable examples. (I know people are going to ask if the first one is by Louis Wain – it’s not. It was by William Henry Ellam.) Edited to add: The “I’m a Suffer Yet” is a joke referring to suffragettes being beaten and detained by police. This is according to various sociologist’s and historian’s essays I have read on the subject.
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#36
From The Adventures of Nip and Tuck: Just Cats. Written by Elizabeth Francis and illustrated by Barbara Roe Hicklin, 1959
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#37
Sleepy heap. Painting by Henriette Ronner-Knip, 1903. Sold by Bonhams auction house in 2011.
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#38
Illustration from Two Too Many by Nora Unwin, 1962.
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#39
A very pleasant loaf. 🍞 Oil painting by Abraham Cooper, 1817. From the online collections of the Ashmolean Museum
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#40
Vintage art for a Chesapeake & Ohio Rail Road calendar by Charles Bracker! So sweet. The sleeping kitty is “Chessie”, one of the most successful cat advertising mascots of the 20th century. This was sold by Ripley Auctions of Indianapolis in 2009.
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#41
Goblin mode activated. By a follower of Sebastian Stoskopff, ca. 17th century. Sold by Christie’s auction house in 2005.
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#42
White Cat by Sal Meijer (1877-1965).
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#43
Illustration from Orlando (The Marmalade Cat): A Seaside Holiday. Written and illustrated by Kathleen Hale, 1952. The family was so hot and bored they didn’t even want their shrimps! 🦐
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#44
From The Picture Poetry Book by Gertrude Parthenon McBrown, illustrated by Loïs Mailou Jones. 1935. The whole book is scanned and available online via the New York Public Library’s Digital Collections!
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#45
Time to get FANCY. From the Peace Institute’s 1904 yearbook, via the Abecedarian website, oneletterwords.com.
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#46
This is really marvelous tabby coat appreciation. 💕 Watercolor by Norbertine Bresslern-Roth, 1920.
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#47
Bum! ❤️ Photo from my collection, 1936.
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#48
Lost Chance. Painting by Charles Burton Barber, 1881.
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#49
Lil meowboy. Photo from my collection ca. 1950s.
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#50
Cat. Painting by Gwen John, ca. 1904 – 1908. From the online collection of the Tate Collective
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