Portraits with cats (and dogs)
Cats loom large in our ancestral legend, at least among some of our family. There are dog people, of course, and we include them in the interest of politeness and balance. But cats are the supreme beings here and we intend to mostly highlight ancestral photos of our people with felines...okay, and dogs too. Portraits with Cats (and Dogs) has been created for that reason.
Cats and dogs have managed to fit themselves into family portraits for centuries, almost from the dawn of photography, and well before that when dogs were mummified and buried with their royal masters, and cats were painted on the walls of Egyptian tombs where they enjoyed meals and playtime into eternity. It's no different with our family snapshots. When we're lucky enough to capture cats and dogs who have graced our lives, we'll be only too happy to present them here.
Catherine, Louise, and cat, Chicago
Catherine Petersen Mikkelsen was the matriarch of a large family in Chicago where she was pictured with a plethora of children and grandchildren. In this photo from her granddaughter's collection we see Catherine with another one of her granddaughters, Louise Schmidt, daughter of Marie Petersen and George Schmidt.
Someone has labeled the photo with the year, 1935. No one noted the name of the cat who made a sly entrance into the setting.
Catherine's garden was a bit ramshackle but probably provided many opportunities for hunting and gathering. Here her cat gives Catherine a tail kiss, which anyone who owns cats will know is a sweet way to express affection as you stroll on by.
Catherine emigrated to the United States in 1878 at age sixteen to marry her first cousin Hans Petersen. They spent some time farming in Belle Prairie and Hebron, Nebraska but came to Chicago in 1890. She and Hans had eleven children, and when Hans died in 1905 a year later Catherine married a family friend, Thomas Mikkelsen, and they had one daughter together. There's no report on whether those offspring liked cats, but the next generation down had some profound cat fanciers.
Photo collection: Cathie Meyer
OLga Jatho Quin and cat, Charleston 1940
Olga von Oven Jatho was born in 1897 in Charleston, South Carolina, daughter of George William Jatho and Arnolda Cornelia von Oven. Her mother was a German immigrant of a merchant family who established high-end grocery stores in Charleston, while her father, son of a watchmaker and jeweler, made his trade as a merchandise buyer and later as a top salesman for Colgate, the soap and toothpaste company.
Olga was one of seven siblings, five of whom made it to adulthood in Charleston. She married Louis DuBose Quin in 1920 and became part of the Quin Press, a printing establishment which her husband managed. Louis and Olga had a son and daughter before Louis' untimely death in 1928, after which Olga worked at the Citadel Academy in Charleston.
Shown relaxing in the front parlor with her cat, Olga lived with her unmarried sisters at 2 Doughty Street, the family home they'd inherited. The cat appears to be in the midst of movement.
Photo collection: Louis Quin
Lorraine, Tom, Pepe le Moko and Muffer, 1950
My parents were both dog people but my dad leaned more in the direction of cats. When they married, Lorraine Bruns and Tom MacLaughlan picked out a kitten and puppy to augment their newlywed life in Rosemead, California.
Pepe le Moko was my father's selection, a big-boned grey-and-white tomcat, while my mom chose Muffer, known as Muffy, a black-and-white mixed breed mid-sized dog. Raised together, the two animals may have thought that they were related.
Pepe was an outdoor cat with indoor privileges while Muffy spent most of her time indoors guarding the homestead.
I never knew Pepe, who wasn't around by the time I was born, but Muffy, so I'm told, accepted my appearance in the household, albeit a little wistful at the idea that she'd have to share her mistress's affection with a newborn. Muffy became a guard dog as a result, dutifully sleeping outside my bedroom to keep away intruders. Old dogs can learn new tricks.
Photo collection: Lorraine Bruns MacLaughlan
Pete Petersen and cat, Arizona 1940
Fred Calvin "Pete" Petersen was the son of Clarence Petersen and Dora Hamblin of Chicago. Pete himself was born in Chicago and attended school there but his family moved to Arizona for the climate, and that's where Pete and his feline friend were photographed about 1941.
Pete was a scion of the large Petersen clan of Chicago. His father Clarence was the last of eleven children born to Hans and Catharina Petersen and he grew up entranced with automobiles, not cats from what we can tell.
But young Pete was fond of his cat and was photographed in the yard of his home in Sun City, where his parents ran a boarding house and eventually made plans to relocate to Date City in California.
Pete married Gloria Lake, had three daughters, worked as a machinist for Goodyear Aerospace, and was a mason. He may have even had cats in his later life.
Photo collection: Kathy Petersen Beamis
Adelaide Gadpaille Jatho and Billy, New Orleans 1965
Adelaide Gadpaille was born in New Orleans in 1892, the daughter of Joseph Charles Gadpaille of New York and Evadne Adelaide Garcia of Jamaica, West Indies. She married Norwood Jatho, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1917 and together they had four sons: Norwood "Jack," Kenneth Hodges, Joseph Charles, and Edgar Wilfred.
Adelaide was also a great fan of cats. She posed for this photo about 1965 in New Orleans with her kitten, Billy.
Adelaide lost her husband Norwood Senior in 1939 but was supported by her four sons in New Orleans, where she busied herself with community service groups such as the Order of the Eastern Star. She died in 1973.
Photo collection: Edgar W. Jatho
Jim and Dolores Brewer, Los Angeles 1951
Jim Brewer and Dolores MacLaughlan married in 1949 and lived in the San Gabriel Valley, where Jim worked as an insurance agent. Dolores has Petersen ancestry so you know she was going to be interested in cats.
Here in 1951 she and Jim were celebrating Christmas, although it's not certain that this was their house. It could have been her parents' house -- the armchair looks just like the one that her parents, Alva and Marie MacLaughlan, owned.That's one chonky cat! He looks like a domestic shorthair variety with a blaze across the face of tabby stripes, and tail stripes as well. He looks entranced with the tree. What cat wouldn't be?
Dolores' father was technically a Petersen. He was born Alfred Emil Petersen and changed his name to Alva Elwood MacLaughlan around 1914 when he married Marie Jatho of Charleston. Their first-born son was called Thomas William Petersen-McLaughlin, which shows that the new surname hadn't yet completely jelled into permanency.
Dolores' brother Tom loved cats too. Perhaps it was a Petersen trait.
Someone received a nice set of screwdrivers for Christmas. What did the cat receive?
Photo collection: Lorraine Bruns MacLaughlans
Margaret (Maggie) Petersen and friend, Chicago 1892
Margaret (Maggie) Petersen was only about six years old when her parents took her to Peters photography studio on Ashland Avenue in Chicago. Born in 1888 in Nebraska, her family moved to Chicago around 1890 where her father was a laborer.
This cabinet card had at one time been placed in a red cardboard frame which left its imprint on the image surface but we can still make out the details. Maggie, wearing an elaborate patterned dress and a family cameo, poses with what is unmistakably a friendly dog, who is equally adorned with a collar and medallions.
Is it Maggie's dog or the photographer's? If the latter it was a clever way to keep a child entertained while the photo shoot was prepared. Looks like a real dog, too, if you examine its tongue, which is slightly out of focus as it smiles for the portrait.
Maggie was the only daughter of the family until her sister Marie was born in 1899. Maggie herself died at age fifteen in Milwaukee, where the family had moved, a monumental loss and much too soon. But at least this photo survives to capture a special moment between a girl and her dog.
Photo collection: Cathie Meyer