So, I am perusing the January, 1901, issue of The Camera: An Independent Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Advancement of the Amateur Photographer, published in Philadelphia. I had already noticed a handful of cat pictures included in the pages, when I ran across an article on page 29. “Our Cat Photo Contest” is the title.

Cats and Cameras! The Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of visuals, goes back at least 125 years! The magazine had to delay announcing the winners because of the overwhelming number of entries, 732 total. Who knew? The article lists some of the more popular names of the cats in the entries.

For your viewing pleasure:

Dewey / 92 (think Thomas not Melvil)

Tom / 53

Teddy and Roosevelt / 31

Napolean / 9

Grover / 6 (think Cleveland not Muppets)

Hobson / 5

Caesar / 4

Grant / 2

Alger / 1

I’m sure there were cats photographed as soon as they could be photographed, but it was still of interest to see that amateur photographers were participating in cat photo contests that far back.

If you are interested, this issue is available in the HathiTrust (www.hathitrust.org).