Earlier this century, the International Fund for Animal Welfare declared August 8 to be International Cat Day, a day set aside to celebrate our feline friends, which apparently just can’t get enough attention. To honor this day, I’ve gathered a small collection of archival images of cats and kittens below. Fashions and technologies may change over time, but cats never go out of style.
Historic Cat Photos on International Cat Day
1. The original photo caption from March 23, 1959: "Hep cat. A real live kitten on the keys, this music-loving feline lends vocal accompaniment to his mistress in Worcester Park, England. As Marion Holland 15, plays the piano, Money the cat joins in the singing."
Bettmann / Getty
2. The feline mascot of the Australian light cruiser HMAS Encounter peering from the muzzle of a six-inch gun, sometime during World War I
Australian War Memorial
3. A woman photographed with her cat at the C. M. Bell Studio in Washington, D.C., sometime between 1894 and 1901
Library of Congress
4. A street butcher prepares to feed the cats and dogs lined up in front of him.
Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis via Getty
5. The whiskered face of a sleeping cat in 1929
Chaloner Woods / Getty
6. A farmer playing guitar on the porch in the evening, with a child and kitten just inside, near Natchitoches, Louisiana, in August 1940
Marion Post Wolcott / Library of Congress
7. The Eastwood pet parade, in New South Wales, Australia, on September 5, 1951
Sam Hood / State Library of New South Wales
8. A white cat that lives atop one of the pylon supports of the Sydney Harbour Bridge welcomes tourists to the Australian city in January 1957.
Dennis Rowe / BIPs / Getty
9. Benjamin Fink of the U.S. Navy holds President Calvin Coolidge’s cat, Tiger, at the White House on March 25, 1924. "Tige" had made a brief departure from the White House grounds, but was promptly returned by Fink.
Library of Congress
10. Albert Schweitzer (and his companion) writing at a desk
Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis via Getty
11. A World War II soldier's goodbye, and Bobbie the cat, in Sydney, Australia
Sam Hood / State Library of New South Wales
12. A customized car advertises Black Cat cigarettes, circa 1915. (Note: The cats depicted in this image may in fact be pantomime cats, not real cats.)
Sean Sexton / Getty
13. A cat sitting in a field in September 1918
New York Public Library
14. A cat being lowered in a basket in England on September 4, 1933
Fox Photos / Getty
15. A portrait of Mark Twain with a porcelain cat on his lap. Twain famously loved cats, owning more than a dozen of them at a time. One of his more famous quotes: "If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat."
Library of Congress / Corbis / VCG via Getty
16. A woman takes her cat out for a walk while keeping it on a tight leash in 1938 England.
Express / Getty
17. "Tired of play," a slide from a stereograph made in 1898
Courtesy trustees of the Boston Public Library