The nineteenth century saw a rapid improvement in photographic technology. In 1839, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre invented the daguerreotype photo process, which utilized a silver plate and mercury to capture an image. Additional methods like calotypes, ambrotypes, and carte-de-visite made photography more accessible as the process became simpler and cheaper. Photography studios opened in cities like San Francisco and coastal towns like Fort Bragg.
The invention of the Kodak camera in 1888 created a mass market for photography. One camera was preloaded with film to capture 100 images. Once the film was used, the camera was mailed back to the company, which would develop the film, reload the camera, and send it back. Professional and amateur photographers alike could use the Kodak camera.
Photographs were treasured items. Many took portraits of children and close loved ones to capture pieces of someone’s life to keep forever. Camera lenses were soon turned on another beloved member of people’s lives: pets.
Capturing animals in a permanent artform wasn’t a new idea. Cats and dogs are visible in everything from cave paintings to renaissance era art. Once the camera was invented, people like Queen Victoria helped to popularize pet photography, as she regularly commissioned photographs of her beloved dogs. In 1884, the San Francisco Call Bulletin wrote about the craze of wealthy women taking their pets to photography studios to “immortalize” them.
Pet photographs showcased how pets were considered part of the family. The Blairs, cousins of the Kelleys in Mendocino, had many four-legged companions documented in photographs. The earliest photo available of one of the Blairs’ pets shows “Duke Blair,” taken at Thors Studio in San Francisco. Owned by Louis Thors, the studio operated on Larkin Street between 1880 and 1890, dating Duke’s portrait between those years. Duke sits on a cushion, looking directly at the camera.
Once cameras like the Kodak became more accessible, people began taking photos of their pets during daily life. The Blairs took many photos of dogs at their homes, sometimes joining their companion for the photo. Chester Ford’s dog Sport appears in many photos. In photos taken in June 1890 during a picnic at Big River, Sport is seen with Chester’s sister Ella Jane and her infant daughter Alice Earl. In the Kelley House archives, dogs appear in photos more often than cats. Photographs such as these are not unlike the pet photos taken on cell phones today.
Kelley House Museum curator Averee McNear writes a weekly column on Mendocino County history for Mendocino Voice. To learn more, visit kelleyhousemuseum.org.