The Cat's Pyjamas
To mark Senate House Library’s and University College London’s conference on the significance of cats in culture and society, we present cats from across the Library’s collections from Horace Walpole's tragic Selima to Puss-in-Boots in pantomime. The items show the range and variety of felines that stalk the stacks.
Click on each image to view the item in more details.
Plate from Designs by Mr. R. Bentley, for six poems by Mr. T. Gray. In the Sterling Library, first and fine editions of English literature. Depicts Thomas Gray's tragicomic poem about the death of Horace Walpole's cat, Selima.
Page from Designs by Mr. R. Bentley, for six poems by Mr. T. Gray. In the Sterling Library, first and fine editions of English literature. Thomas Gray's tragicomic poem about the death of Horace Walpole's cat, Selima.
Page from Designs by Mr. R. Bentley, for six poems by Mr. T. Gray. In the Sterling Library, first and fine editions of English literature. Thomas Gray's tragicomic poem about the death of Horace Walpole's cat, Selima.
Page from Designs by Mr. R. Bentley, for six poems by Mr. T. Gray. In the Sterling Library, first and fine editions of English literature. Thomas Gray's tragicomic poem about the death of Horace Walpole's cat, Selima. She doesn't look happy to see Cerberus!
Broadsheet ballad about Dick Whittington, thrice lord mayor of London, and his apocryphal cat. In the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature.
Plate from Travels through the southern provinces of the Russian empire, in the years 1793 and 1794 translated from the German of P.S. Pallas, Vol. 1. In the M.S. Anderson Collection, writings on Russia printed 1525-1917. 'Represents a peculiar species of the domestic Cat' (page ix). A black cat Siamese hybrid perhaps?
Flyer for a performance by "learned cats" by Signor Cappelli at Bartholomew Fair' in the Harry Price Archive of Magical Manuscripts. Kitty tricks include grinding knives, roasting coffee and drawing water out of a well, with a wonderful domino-playing dog as a side act.
Plate from The natural history of the felinae ... by Sir William Jardine. In the Durning-Lawrence Library, items related to Sir Francis Bacon. According to Ruppel, 'This cat, must in more than one respect, excite the interest of natural philosophers, as there can be no doubt but that from it is descended the domestic cat of the ancient Egyptians' (pages 239-240).
Title and first pages of Cats' Castle : with an account of how it was besieged and taken by the rats. Children's chapbook in the Quick Memorial Library, items related to the history of education.
Obligatory illustration from Alice's adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. In the Durning-Lawrence Library, items related to Sir Francis Bacon.
Page from Book of the words of Whittington and his cat : the Drury Lane pantomime, 1884-5. In the Malcolm Morley Collection on 19th and 20th century theatre.
Page from Book of the words of Whittington and his cat : the Drury Lane pantomime, 1884-5. In the Malcolm Morley Collection on 19th and 20th century theatre.
Dame Wiggins of Lee, and her seven wonderful cats : a humourous tale written principally by a lady of ninety. In the Sterling Library, first and fine editions of English literature.
Page from Our cats and all about them ... described and pictured by Harrison Weir. In the General Special Collections.
Page from Our cats and all about them ... described and pictured by Harrison Weir. In the General Special Collections.
Page from Our cats and all about them ... described and pictured by Harrison Weir. In the General Special Collections.
Big handsome boy from Our cats and all about them ... described and pictured by Harrison Weir. In the General Special Collections.
Illustration from Our cats and all about them ... described and pictured by Harrison Weir. In the General Special Collections.
The article Cats by J. Maclaren Cobban from Strand Magazine, Jul-Dec 1891, Vol. II. In the closed Tower stacks.
The article Cats by J. Maclaren Cobban from Strand Magazine, Jul-Dec 1891, Vol. II. In the closed Tower stacks.
The article Cats by J. Maclaren Cobban from Strand Magazine, Jul-Dec 1891, Vol. II. In the closed Tower stacks.
The article Cats by J. Maclaren Cobban from Strand Magazine, Jul-Dec 1891, Vol. II. In the closed Tower stacks.
The article Cats by J. Maclaren Cobban from Strand Magazine, Jul-Dec 1891, Vol. II. In the closed Tower stacks.
The article Cats by J. Maclaren Cobban from Strand Magazine, Jul-Dec 1891, Vol. II. In the closed Tower stacks.
The article Cats by J. Maclaren Cobban from Strand Magazine, Jul-Dec 1891, Vol. II. In the closed Tower stacks.
The article Cats by J. Maclaren Cobban from Strand Magazine, Jul-Dec 1891, Vol. II. In the closed Tower stacks.
The article Cats by J. Maclaren Cobban from Strand Magazine, Jul-Dec 1891, Vol. II. In the closed Tower stacks.
Page from the article Animal friendship by Albert H. Broadwell. In the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature.
Page from the article Animal friendship by Albert H. Broadwell. In the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature.
Page from the article Animal friendship by Albert H. Broadwell. In the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature.
Page from the article Animal friendship by Albert H. Broadwell. In the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature.
Page from the article Strange friendships between animals by Frances Pitt. In the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature.
Page from the article Strange friendships between animals by Frances Pitt. In the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature.
Page from the article Strange friendships between animals by Frances Pitt. In the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature.
From the Trance Painting envelope in the Harry Price Archive of Magical Manuscripts. 'Trance drawing of two cats by a "woman of weak intellect" at The Hague, who used both left and right hands simultaneously'.
Front cover of Lyceum Puss in Boots. Playbill in the Malcolm Morley Collection on 19th and 20th century theatre.
Page from Lyceum Puss in Boots [a panto]. Playbill in the Malcolm Morley Collection on 19th and 20th century theatre.
Page from Struwwelpeter; or, Merry stories and funny pictures [by Heinrich Hoffmann]. In the Special Collections K10, children's educational books. Illustrations from the 1861 German edition, possibly embellished by Hoffmann from the original 1845 edition.
Page from A nonsense alphabet by Edward Lear. In the General Special Collections. Originally drawn in 1880.