Pet Photography through the Ages

Our cultural obsession with cute animal photos might seem like a recent phenomenon that has flourished with sites like Cute Overload and icanhascheezburger, but photographing our pets is as old a practice as photography itself.  Many of the Bancroft’s collections, from the Oliver Family Photograph Collections to California Faces: Selections from The Bancroft Library Portrait Collection include photographs of everyday-life moments that look familiar to the modern pet owner, such as posing with a beloved collie or cat.  Click on the links below to explore the collections to which these images belong.

[slideshow]

  1. Dog.
  2. Anita? Oliver with dog.
  3. A Boy and His Dog. Los Angeles, California
  4. Our Police Dog on Nov. 4/24 Election Day. 
  5. Engineer Frank Crockett and his dog
  6. [Phelan, girl, and dogs]
  7. [Dog in carriage]
  8. Dog owned by Sheldon Nichols
  9. Group portrait of men with dogs, University of California at Berkeley, Summer School of Surveying.
  10. [Unidentified man with dog.]
  11. Dog, Pekinese, named “Jet”, owned by J.P. Smith. 
  12. Anita Oliver and dog, Ginger.
  13. [Woman with parrot]
  14. Two cats
  15. [Cat. Unidentified location.]
  16. Miss Coolbrith with cat, 1924. 56 Tarabal St., S.F.