Hundred of photos, prints, and drawings in our collections are cataloged with the subject heading “Animals in Human Situations.” Subject headings are used to help researchers find other material on the same subject. Animals in human situations appear in advertisements, book illustrations, and political cartoons in our collections, as well as in photographs. My most recent Flickr album of Wedding Pictures, included one such photo, seen below. Harry Whittier Frees’ 1914 photo of kittens getting married is a classic example of this genre of images, where animals take on the roles of humans.
Frees created whimsical photos of cats, dogs, and other animals for postcards, advertisements and children’s books. Here is another example of a puppy making a phone call!
A series of recently digitized stereographs introduced me to Dogtown. The image below includes six canine students and one glasses-wearing teacher at the Dogtown Dancing School. When I put this image in a stereoscope to see it in 3-D, I confirmed that isn’t just a very calm cat in the back, but a fake one!
The Dogtown Jubilee invites us to an all-dog party, complete with drinks and playing cards.
Another stereograph in the series shows the unfortunate aftermath of too much pretend imbibing by these pups!
In this 1898 photo, a cat model poses for a feline photographer behind the camera:
Other types of animals appear in this genre of photos as well, including this pipe-smoking owl amid a quartet that also includes a small dog playing a harmonica!
Detroit Publishing Company produced postcards and views of many subjects, from foreign views to U.S. streets and buildings. And it appears they may also have made a whole series of postcards of this bulldog in costumes, complete with wigs and false arms. Here are two examples:
If nothing else, these photos confirm that the internet was not the origin of humorous pictures of animals wearing hats and other costumes, as this has been a hobby of some humans for well over a century. We can see it all here in black and white!
Learn More:
- Explore more images identified as animals in human situations, including non-photographic items like drawings and prints.
- See other digitized photos of cats and dogs by Harry Whittier Frees in our collection.
- Study more of the dogs from the Dogtown Dancing School and Dogtown Jubilee in this group of stereographs by International Stereographic Company.
- Want to learn more about how we catalog pictures? Watch the webinar Subject Indexing for Pictures: The Thesaurus for Graphic Materials.
- If you enjoy cats just being cats, revisit the Picture This post Cats are Looking at You.