Cats

October 1910, aboard the steamship Trent off Bermuda. "M. Vaniman and cat." Melvin Vaniman, first engineer aboard the hydrogen airship America, with the tabby cat mascot of their ill-fated attempt at the first air crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

New York, June 1952. Eartha Kitt, the self-styled "sex kitten" who made "Santa Baby" a staple of the holiday airwaves in a career that spanned half a century, died today at the age of 81. Photo by Gordon Parks, Life archive. View full size.

"Happy Days." Gertrude Kasebier's grandson Charles O'Malley in 1902. 8x10 dry-plate glass negative. View full size. You can't get much cuter than this.

April 1936. "Interior of rehabilitation client's cabin. Jackson County, Ohio." A close-up of the little girl's room shown four pictures down. 35mm nitrate negative by Theodor Jung, Resettlement Administration. View full size.

August 1912. Another picture of little Annie Fedele, 22 Horace Street, Somerville, Massachusetts, doing piecework, which usually entailed putting the finishing touches (buttons, or collar and waistband trim) on a mostly completed article of clothing. The garment manufacturers paid a few cents for each piece that was done. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.

Moving van at an apartment eviction in New York circa 1908. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.

In 1910, on the first airplane flight across the English Channel to carry a passenger, American aviator John Moisant flew from Paris to London accompanied by both his mechanic and his cat, named either Mademoiselle Fifi or Paree, depending on which newspaper you believe. Later that year Moisant died in a crash near New Orleans. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection.