Tag: Oak Park Public Library

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International Cat Day: Celebrating Cats Since 2002

In 2002, the International Fund for Animal Welfare created International Cat Day, which is celebrated on August 8th. This day is dedicated to raising awareness for cats and educating the public on ways to help and protect them. Although different countries might have national celebrations for cats on other days, International Cat Day on August 8th is intended to be celebrated worldwide. 

Ever since cats first began domesticating themselves in around 7500 BCE, humans have loved and celebrated them. In Ancient Egypt, they were praised for killing venomous snakes and protecting the Pharaoh, they were used as a representation for the sun god Ra in the Book of the Dead, and the goddess Bastet was often characterized as a cat. In Norse mythology, two grey cats fought alongside the goddess Freyja and pulled her chariot. For centuries, cats have been considered good luck in Russia, and many cats have continuously guarded the Winter Palace since the reign of Empress Elizabeth. 

Anyone who has ever owned a cat – or, rather, has been owned by one – knows that cats are well aware of their venerated status in mythology and folklore, and expect that same level of worship today.  

Finding images for this post was particularly fun for me, as I am a cat lover myself, and happily jump at any chance to celebrate them. Just like humans, there are images of cats sprinkled throughout history, both with and without the families they’ve chosen. Please enjoy these images of cats from the Oak Park Public Library, the Chicago History Museum, Lewis University, the Illinois State Museum, and the Newberry Library.  

black and white photo of the Hemingway women with one of them holding a cat
Marcelline, Madelaine, Ursula and Carol Hemingway with Wuzzy the cat, December 1919. December 29, 1919. Oak Park Public Library. The Early Years – Ernest and Marcelline Hemingway in Oak Park Collection. Courtesy of Oak Park Public Library and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park. 
black and white image of cat on a porch standing in the shadow of a tipped over rocking chair.
Cat and shadows on porch. Circa 1962. Photograph by Declan Haun. Chicago History Museum. Prints and Photographs Collection. Courtesy of Chicago History Museum. 
sepia-toned black and white image of a young girl holding a cat while sitting on a hammock on a porch
Anna Cheadle on a hammock with her cat. 1915. Lewis University. Bruce Cheadle Papers. Courtesy of Lewis University. 
color photo of a calico-coat cat sitting on a pile of manilla folders with papers.
Work from home companions. March 19, 2020. Photograph by M. Mahoney. Illinois State Museum. Illinois Stories – COVID-19. Courtesy of Illinois State Museum. 
black and white image of a cat in a cage on a luggage carrier train.
Cat in cage, Railway Express Depot, Union Station, Chicago, May 1948. May 1948. Newberry Library. Daily Life Along the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Courtesy of Newberry Library. 

 

View the full The Early Years – Ernest and Marcelline Hemingway in Oak Park, Prints and Photographs, Bruce Cheadle Papers, Illinois Stories – COVID-19, and the Daily Life Along the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Collections on the IDHH.  

View more items related to Cats and Kittens on the IDHH. 

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Celebrating Illinois Writers

July 21 marks the 120th birthday of Illinois-born, internationally-acclaimed author, Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961). To celebrate, the IDHH highlights collections that include materials on several Illinois literary giants, including Gwendolyn Brooks, Carl Sandburg, and Hemingway himself.
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) is one of the most celebrated U.S. poets, poet laureate of Illinois, and longtime Chicago resident. In 1949, She became the first African American writer to win a Pulitzer Prize. Brooks has a deep connection to African American history and culture, public life, and academics in Illinois. Throughout her life, Brooks spoke at libraries and campuses throughout the state, as demonstrated below in the photographs from the Lake Forest Academy and Ferry Hall Archives collection and Elgin Community College’s campus history collection. Gwendolyn Brooks came to Ferry Hall in 1969 and Lake Forest Academy in May of 1994 to speak to classes and give a reading of her poems. She visited Elgin Community College in 1995 to speak to high school and college English students. Brooks has perhaps the strongest connection to Illinois Wesleyan University, visiting the campus five times from 1972-1999, receiving an honorary doctorate there in 1973. See materials from her visits to Wesleyan. See all of material in the IDHH on Brooks.

Coincidentally, July also marks the death of another of the most celebrated writers in the state and the U.S., Carl Sandburg (1878-1967). Though best known for his poetry, especially his breathtaking naturalist and modernist pieces on urban life in Chicago, he was also a musician, editor, and prose author. One of his three Pulitzers was awarded for a biography on Lincoln. Sandburg was an advocate for civil rights and received an award from the NAACP in 1965. In the photo below from the Chicago History Museum’s Prints and Photographs Collection, Sandburg sits with his biographer, Harry Golden. Sandburg lived most of his life outside of Illinois but occasionally returned to his home state, including a visit to Knox College in 1958. Search all of the materials in the IDHH relating to Sandburg.

Writers Carl Sandburg (left) and Harry Golden sit in Golden's office following the publication of his biography of the poet titled Carl Sandburg
Haun, Declan, 1937-1994 (photographer). Carl Sandburg and Harry Golden in Golden’s office. 1961. Chicago History Museum. Prints and Photographs Collection. Permission to display was given by Chicago History Museum.

Finally, the remarkable photographs below from the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, digitized by the Oak Park Library collection in the Illinois Digital Archive, showcase the early life of the author and his family in his hometown, a suburb of Chicago. Hemingway authored more than a dozen novels and short story collections throughout his life, receiving a Pulitzer for The Old Man and the Sea in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.  He is pictured below with his siblings, two of whom, Marcelline and Leicester, also became talented writers. Check out all of the IDHH materials on Hemingway.