The feline mascot of the Australian light cruiser HMAS Encounter peering from the muzzle of a six-inch gun, sometime during World War I #

A woman photographed with her cat at the C. M. Bell Studio in Washington, D.C., sometime between 1894 and 1901 #

A street butcher prepares to feed the cats and dogs lined up in front of him. #

The whiskered face of a sleeping cat in 1929 #

A farmer playing guitar on the porch in the evening, with a child and kitten just inside, near Natchitoches, Louisiana, in August 1940 #

The Eastwood pet parade, in New South Wales, Australia, on September 5, 1951 #

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. #

Albert Schweitzer (and his companion) writing at a desk #

A World War II soldier's goodbye, and Bobbie the cat, in Sydney, Australia #

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.) #

A cat sitting in a field in September 1918 #

A cat being lowered in a basket in England on September 4, 1933 #

A woman takes her cat out for a walk while keeping it on a tight leash in 1938 England. #

"Tired of play," a slide from a stereograph made in 1898 #