Picture This: Profiling Portraits: Feline Photography

Profiling Portraits: Feline Photography
By Kristi Finefield

Taking a portrait alongside your favorite feline is no easy task. Cats are notoriously (but delightfully) finicky about following directions, so getting one to sit still for a portrait can be a tall order. Despite that, our collections contain many examples of people posing with their cats – or at least attempting to do so!

Aviator John Moisant took his cat with him everywhere – including when he became the first pilot to fly with a passenger over the English Channel in 1910. Technically, he had two passengers – his mechanic and his feline friend, Mademoiselle Fifi, pictured below!

John B. Moisant. Photo, copyrighted 1911. https://ift.tt/38ghtwn

Photographer Arnold Genthe named all of his cats Buzzer, a reference to their deep purr, which he enjoyed. He had at least four Buzzers in his life! While I haven’t yet come across a photo of Genthe himself with Buzzer, the various incarnations posed with many of the famous subjects of Genthe, such as actress Daisy King, below. (This is likely a very relaxed Buzzer IV.)

King, Daisy, Miss, with Buzzer the cat, portrait photograph. Photo by Arnold Genthe, 1914 June. https://ift.tt/2DThrN8

Famous felines aside, we have many photos of a family cat with his or her owner, such as the ones clutched by the young girls pictured below:

Baby Beede with kitten. Western Slope Farms, Colorado. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, 1939 Oct. https://ift.tt/2FXK4rK

Hume, C. Photo by C.M. Bell, between December 1903 and March 1905. https://ift.tt/2rYnU6S

The next two photos include show cats, so they are quite beautiful though not necessarily more cooperative!

Washington cat show opens at Wardman Park Hotel. [Edna B. Doughty and Louise Grogan with Persian cats.] Photo by National Photo Company, between 1920 and 1932. https://ift.tt/2DOO4vt

Mrs. M.K. Metcalf, Cat Show, 2/1/27. Photo by National Photo Company, 1927 February 1. https://ift.tt/2PdvBOc

And perhaps saving my favorites for last, enjoy a series of photographs of a Mrs. Emmons attempting to pose with her white cat, with varying levels of success. The photographs come from the collection of photographer C.M. Bell’s Washington, D.C., studio, so we have the successes as well as the “outtakes” of some portrait sessions. I included a fourth photo of just the cat, as perhaps Mrs. Emmons had reached her limit at that point!

Emmons, Mrs. S.F. Photo by C.M. Bell, between February 1894 and February 1901. https://ift.tt/2Pmiryy	Emmons cat. Photo by C. M. Bell, between February 1894 and February 1901. https://ift.tt/33RWRHD
Emmons cat [woman and cat] Photo by C.M. Bell, between February 1894 and February 1901. https://ift.tt/33RWSLH	Emmons [cat]. Photo by C. M. Bell, between February 1894 and February 1901. ttp://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/bellcm.06682

Cat story, 1/11/21. Photo by National Photo Company, 1921 January 11. https://ift.tt/34YqA2K

Learn More:

• Peruse an album of Purrfect Cat photos, prints and drawings recently added to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division’s Flickr photostream.
• Cats were also the focus of a recent Library of Congress Free to Use and Reuse set of images: Cats.
  • Explore all of the Library of Congress Free to Use and Reuse sets.
• Revisit Picture This blog posts related to the above:
  • Coolidge’s Cat: Out of the Bag: What happens when a presidential pet cat goes missing in Washington, D.C.?
  • C. M. Bell Studio Collection: Newly Digitized Portraits: A sample of the portrait photos of Washington-based photographer C. M. Bell.
• View the rest of the entries in the occasional Profiling Portraits blog series.