While our collections document some important local, national, and international history, they also chronicle the lives of individual families, giving us insight into the everyday lives of Americans over the last couple of centuries. It’s no surprise that a big part of those everyday lives involved family pets.

Today, we’ll share some images of cats, with dogs making an appearance tomorrow. Most of these cat pictures come from two photo collections, the Perkins Family Photographs, around 300 images of a Tuscaloosa family, and the Roland McMillan Harper photo collection, which encompasses thousands of images of both scientific subjects (botany and geology) and everyday life in Alabama.

Click on any of the images to view them close-up in Acumen.

Mary Harper with a very comfy cat (early 20th c.)

Brook Perkins with his cat, Wang (late 19th c.)

Edwin and Speck (late 19th c.)

Cat on step (mid 20th c.)

Snoopsie (mid 20th c.)

Man and cat on porch (late 19th c.)

Woman with two fluffy little kittens (early 20th c.)

“Papa and his cats” (late 19th c.)