Cat artist Louis William Wain was not a New Yorker but he did live in New York for a few years, so there is a New York City connection to his amazing life story. In this post. I share some of Wain’s reflections on Peter, his pet cat, and on New York City cats in general. (I even found out exactly where he lived when he was in New York City.)
Archive for the ‘Cat Men’ Category
1884: Peter, the Feline Muse of Famous Cat Artist Louis Wain
Posted: 15th November 2025 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Men, Cat StoriesTags: Cat artist, Cats of Old New York, Emily Marie Richardson, Famous cat painters, Louis Wain
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1869: Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn’s Plymouth Church Loved Cats
Posted: 12th July 2024 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Men, Cat StoriesTags: Brooklyn Heights, Cats About Town, Cats of Old New York, Henry Ward Beecher, Plymouth Church
In my last post, I wrote about the famous pastor and orator of Plymouth Church who adopted a little boy’s cat from Indiana and named her Hoosier Cat. I also posted the words of an essay that he penned on cats in the Christian Union in 1870.
I just found another cat essay by Mr. Beecher from 1869 that I simply must share. I believe this essay is even better than the one he wrote in 1870.
1870: Hoosier Cat, the Homeless Cat Adopted by Henry Ward Beecher
Posted: 3rd July 2024 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Men, Cat StoriesTags: Brooklyn Heights History, Cats of Old New York, Henry Ward Beecher, Jacob Hicks, Middagh, Plymouth Church
Henry Ward Beecher was an American clergyman, social reformer, and speaker known for his support of the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, and Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, to name just a few of his passionate causes. Imagine my surprise when I learned that he was also a cat man!
1905-1910: Dr. Ralph Irving Lloyd and the Cats of Park Slope, Brooklyn
Posted: 15th May 2023 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Men, Cat StoriesTags: Cats of Old Brooklyn, Park Slope, Ralph Irving Lloyd, Vintage Cat Photos
Dr. Ralph Irving Lloyd was an eye doctor who also had an eye for cats.
In the early 1900s, Lloyd created dozens of lantern slides of cats in his Park Slope neighborhood, where he lived for a good chunk of his 93 years of life.
1901: Tom, the Deaf Cat of New York’s Post Office Feline Police Force
Posted: 30th October 2021 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Men, Cat Stories, Cats in the MewsTags: Cats of Old New York, Gustave Fersenheim, New York City History, New York General Post Office, post office cats, Thomas Gallaudet
A librarian recently asked me what makes an old news story worthy of further research and posting on my website. I told her that not only does it need to be a great animal tale, but it must also be a good people story or have ties to interesting historical buildings or events. The following story about a deaf New York Post Office cat and the deaf postal worker who loved him meets all my criteria for a fabulous animal story of Old New York. Sit back and enjoy.
