The history of cats in pictures

As much as we try to love cats and understand them, there’s so much we just don’t know about their history.

Baba the cat wanted to set the record straight! so she let her dad, (Dr. Paul Koudounaris, one of the world’s most popular historians) dress her up in the most adorable costumes to illustrate the role felines in history throughout various historical eras.

Julius Caesar’s armies used cats to protect Roman stores from vermin, and cats followed imperial legions all the way to Britannia. Some Roman armies even marked their shields with cats.

Cardinal Richelieu, chief minister of France’s Louis XIII, was infamous for ruling his office with an iron fist. But he was also fond of cats, preferring to have at least a dozen surrounding him at all times.

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In 17th-century France, women of the court embraced the newfound fashion of owning cats, rather than lapdogs, as cultivated companions. Princess Elizabeth Charlotte, wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, proclaimed, “Cats are the most entrancing animals in the world.” 

Napoléon Bonaparte hated cats, once stating, “There are two kinds of fidelity, that of dogs and that of cats.” He resisted the idea of breeding cats as rat catchers on the streets of Paris, preferring instead to use poison, which resulted in illness to humans as well as rodents.

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By the early 19th century, cats were standard equipment in U.S. Army commissary storehouses, with $18.25 allocated for annual upkeep of each cat on army premises.

Not long after the American Revolution, the U.S. became the first country to set aside money for cats in its budget. Approximately $1,000 per year was apportioned out for postal cats, which were employed to keep mouse populations in check.

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Many cowboys traveled with their cats, which became not only valuable mousers but also feline friends. The idea of cats as companions began to percolate, spread by writers such as Mark Twain and poet Cy Warman.

Pop Art pioneer Andy Warhol owned up to 25 cats at a time, all of them Siamese and all, except one, named Sam. In 1954, prior to attaining fame, Warhol published a book of cat lithographs that now sells for tens of thousands of dollars.

All pics and text excerpts taken from Dr. Paul Koudounaris ‘s book A Cat’s Tale: A Journey Through Feline History. 

About the author ( Baba’s dad)

Research took Dr. Koudounaris across the country and world, from Wisconsin to Massachusetts and France to New Zealand. Once he began to look, stories popped up everywhere.

In California, for instance, he delved into the story of Room 8, a grey tabby who appeared at a Los Angeles elementary school in 1952 and stayed for 16 years, becoming the school’s mascot as well as the subject of a biography, TV specials and hundreds of fan letters.

RELATED: An unforgettable cat named ‘Room 8’

In Japan, he researched the history of Maneki-Neko, the 17th-century Japanese cat who inspired the now ubiquitous raised-paw good luck cat.