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.
According to the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York (one of the city’s oldest maritime establishments), cats and dogs were the most popular mascots on ships in the good old days. Seamen were especially fond of cats, as they brought good luck to a maiden voyage. The Institute also seemed to favor cats, and in fact had numerous feline mascots at its New York City headquarters on South Street during the 1900s.
“This is a tale of a cat. Of a cat with a tail fourteen inches long. It is a true tale. It is vouched for by a fireman, a policeman and the appearance of the cat. A woman, a basket, a hole in a ceiling, a doctor and some medicine also figure into the tale.”—The New York World, January 5, 1894