Unexpected: Animals do the most amazing things
We’ve always had a strange relationship with animals. Some are beloved family members, we farm, hunt, and fish others, and we are awestruck by some for their natural beauty and power. Whatever we think of them, we love to photograph them. And, that’s been the case since the camera started to capture their likenesses in the 19th Century.
Dogs hold a particular place in our hearts. These sled dogs from the 1870s were part of the winter mail line near Lake Superior.
![Gems of Lake Superior scenery, No. 95 [Stereograph], ca.1870s. Childs, B. F. (Brainard F.) (ca. 1841-1921). Via The New York Public Library.](https://dpla.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ba62557072d9aa6772790d39e65a232d.jpg)
Gems of Lake Superior scenery, No. 95 [Stereograph], ca.1870s. Childs, B. F. (Brainard F.) (ca. 1841-1921). Courtesy of The New York Public Library.
Dogs are especially photogenic when they are doing tricks. Especially when they carry kittens, children, and tiny cans of dog food in their carts.
St. Bernard Lodge, P.O. Mill Creek, California, 1946. Eastman, Jervie Henry. Courtesy of the University of California, Davis, Library via the California Digital Library.
Publicity at Hollywood dog training school, Southern California, 1935. Courtesy of the University of Southern California Libraries.
Apparently, harnessing and riding animals of all sorts was, in the early era of photography, an American pastime.
Cawston Ostrich Farm Postcard: Anna Held Riding an Ostrich. Courtesy of the South Pasadena Public Library via the California Digital Library.
Frank Buck’s Jungleland from the New York World’s Fair (1939-1940). Courtesy of The New York Public Library.
Boy riding catfish, 1941. Douglass, Neal. Courtesy of the Austin History Center, Austin Public Library via The Portal to Texas History.
A Young Girl in a Goat-Drawn Wagon, 1926. Courtesy of the Private Collection of T. Bradford Willis via The Portal to Texas History.
Children Riding a Deer-Drawn Wagon. Courtesy of the Private Collection of T. Bradford Willis via The Portal to Texas History.
Photographs of animals riding other animals warm our hearts, too.
Horse & dog pals – winter time. Copyright (c) Leslie Jones. This work is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND). Courtesy of the Boston Public Library via Digital Commonwealth.
Monkey riding a goat, 1935. Copyright (c) Leslie Jones. This work is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND). Courtesy of the Boston Public Library via Digital Commonwealth.
And finally, this donkey on wheels just leaves us speechless.
Charles “Chick” Hoover and his roller skating donkey, Pinky, in Banning, California, ca. 1958. Courtesy of the Banning Library District via the California Digital Library.