Brooklyn Pets

Cat [in flower garden], 1967, v1988.12.134; Otto Dreschmeyer Brooklyn slides, v1988.12; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Pet photography appears almost immediately after photography was introduced in the mid-19^th century. The first known photograph of a dog was a daguerreotype title Poodle with a Bow, on a Table by an unknown photographer in the 1850s. It’s clear from the photographic collections at Brooklyn Historical Society that Brooklyites love their pets! There are hundreds of pet photographs in our collections and many of them are digitized and available online. You can see some here and here.

The photo of the week depicts a cat in a flower garden around 1967. I love the color palette in this photograph and how the orange flowers pick up the orange markings on the cat. This photograph is from the Otto Dreschmeyer Brooklyn slides collection comprised of 157 photographic slides from 1965 to 1968. Most of the collection includes photographs taken by Dreschmeyer of Brooklyn, likely using a Hasselblad camera. There are also images that depict parts of Queens and Lower Manhattan. To see more photographs from this collection, check out this gallery.

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. Interested in seeing even more historic Brooklyn images? Visit our Brooklyn Visual Heritage website here. To search BHS’s entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Sat, 1:00-5:00 p.m. library@brooklynhistory.org