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