40 Vintage Cat Photos That Prove Felines Have Always Ruled Our Hearts

Cats have always been little rulers of our homes, and vintage photos prove it. Long before social media turned them into global stars, felines were already stealing the spotlight in family portraits, lounging on windowsills, and posing like royalty.

#1

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“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

#2

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Little boys. 💕 Postcard from my collection, unsent, 1902.

#3

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Beautiful scene in Scotland. By Mary Ethel Muir Donaldson, ca. 1920s.

#4

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Very fancy potato postcard from my collection, date unknown.

#5

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I’m in ur sink, questioning ur decor choices. Photo from my collection, ca. 1960s.

#6

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Proud. 🏆 Photo from my collection, ca. 1970s

#7

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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.

#8

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Snug. ☺️ From April’s Kittens, written and illustrated by Clare Turlay Newberry. 1940.

#9

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This meeting of the High Council of Tater Tots has been brought to order. Undated, from the Upplandsmuseet in Uppsala, Sweden

#10

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Boy with cat. Photo taken in Natal, South Africa by Constance Stuart Larrabee, 1949. From the Smithsonian online virtual archives.

#11

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His Majesty. Postcard from my collection, mailed 1907.

#12

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Cat in Cherry Tree. Wood engraving print by Eileen Mayo, 1947. From the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

#13

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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.

#14

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Three cats. Three of them. All cats. Photo by Hilding Mickelsson, undated. From the Hälsingland Museum in Hudiksvall, Sweden

#15

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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

#16

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A very pleasant loaf. 🍞 Oil painting by Abraham Cooper, 1817. From the online collections of the Ashmolean Museum

#17

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Here is an angel of summer coming to give you hope in this freezing month! 🌼 Photo from my collection, ca. 1970s.

#18

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Superb mixed bean salad. 🫘 Photo from a book in my collection: The Book of Kittens, edited by Brant House, 1951.

#19

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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.

#20

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“Mary, posed by a small Christmas tree.” Ca. 1935. Photo by Ephraim Burt Trimpey. From the Wisconsin Historical Society.

#21

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A Beauty, 1901. 🍐 From the Auckland Libraries, accessed thanks to the DigitalNZ project.

#22

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A Beauty, 1901. 🍐 From the Auckland Libraries, accessed thanks to the DigitalNZ project.

#23

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“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.

#24

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This is really marvelous tabby coat appreciation. 💕 Watercolor by Norbertine Bresslern-Roth, 1920.

#25

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Sleepy heap. Painting by Henriette Ronner-Knip, 1903. Sold by Bonhams auction house in 2011.

#26

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Proposal for Sistine Chapel redesign. Photo from my collection, no date/info.

#27

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Mother, no. Photo from my collection, no date or other info.

#28

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Christmas explosion with two cats. Photo from my collection, 1972.

#29

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Lil meowboy. Photo from my collection ca. 1950s.

#30

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Just a little guy. Photo from my collection, no date/info.

#31

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Portrait of a beloved loaf. Photo by John Holyland, ca. 1865 – 1880. From the Maryland Center for History and Culture.

#32

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Illustration from Two Too Many by Nora Unwin, 1962.

#33

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Dancer Lisan Kay worshipping her cat. 1942. From the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library Digital Collections.

#34

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Two cool ladies (roommates??) and a small pal. Photo from my collection, ca. 1930s.

#35

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A greeting for negligent penpals and procrastinating authors. Postcard from my collection, 1911.

#36

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Two cats, by Walter Inglis Anderson ca. 1940. From the Walter Anderson Museum of Art Permanent Collection.

#37

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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.

#38

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From The Adventures of Nip and Tuck: Just Cats. Written by Elizabeth Francis and illustrated by Barbara Roe Hicklin, 1959

#39

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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.

#40

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Goblin mode activated. By a follower of Sebastian Stoskopff, ca. 17th century. Sold by Christie’s auction house in 2005.