the museum of ordinary animals

thanks pixabay

"The boring beasts that changed the world," runs the subtitle of this exhibit at London's Grant Museum of Zoology.  Think of it: when's the last time you visited a natural history museum and saw a chicken?  A dog?  Even (and this was a hotly contested inclusion, it seems) frogs? 
Why would you need to go to a museum to see these critters when they're everywhere around you?  The answer isn't so much about seeing as rethinking.  The Grant Museum's doing the natural-science version of what I do here at The Pet Museum: examining the impacts they have had on our world and our cultures.  Upcoming discussions, if you're lucky enough to be over on that side, are: "Is It OK to be a Cat Guy?" "Rats," and "Cats Broke the Internet."
Atlas Obscura has a bit more on it here.  (A word of warning: Nature science means specimens.  There are skulls, mummies, a preserved kitten.)

in which i treat myself to a tiger for friday

hathitrust.org has source as PD

As longtime readers of the Museum know, every so often, your friendly Curator caves in to her forbidden craving . . . to have a tiger.  This fellow is found on page 3 of "Bennie and the Tiger," a moral tale of innocence (Bennie, all of three years old and temporarily unwatched by his nanny) protected by faith from the forces of evil (the Tiger, getting the usual bad rap).
Can't see the fierce majesty?  Tigerhance:

 -- Dean & Son. Bennie And the Tiger. London: Dean & Son, 11, Ludgate Hill, 1857-1865.

wordless vintage wednesday redux

i'm back to pre-used ones!
some longtime readers may remember the series
that started here

a windswept papillon

image copyright and courtesy of the artist

Small dog, big presence:  this papillion by Massachusetts artist Melody Lea Lamb gazes into the wind, alert yet calm.  He's present in the moment, as dogs know so well how to be.  The original of this piece was done in colored pencil and India ink, and all of 3.5 x 2.5 inches.  The careful rendering of the fur, and overall realism of the approach, has been so skilfully handled that it doesn't overwhelm the small space of the portrait.  At Lamb's Etsy shop you can see many more of these tiny works as well as ones a bit bigger.  I was drawn to the simple, jewel-toned immediacy of this one.
Melody Lea Lamb's website is full of even more of these detailed, bright works, and I am sure they will delight you.

great lords and dogs - proverbs of serbia

From a book of Serbian proverbs published in 1915:

• Feed your horse like a brother, but ride him like an enemy.
• A frog saw the horse being shod and lifted up his foot also.
• Hungry hounds make good hunting.
• The barking of young dogs is carried away by the wind.
• Great lords and dogs do not close the door behind them.
• Be on the watch when an old dog barks.
• Crop a dog's ears he remains a dog; dock his tail he is a dog still.
• Dogs howl round empty churches.
• If dogs had their way there would be no horses.

. . . and I have to throw this one in, though it's got nothing to do with critters:

• Give the priest what is the priest's, and the king what is the king's, and then flee.

 -- Turner, K. Amy. National Proverbs: Serbia. London: C. Palmer and Hayward, 1915.

a brave dog in a children's book, 1843

public domain scan from hathitrust.org

No clue who Bose is, or whose dog.  He simply appears on the last page of a little children's book published in New Hampshire 150 years ago, for no apparent reason than to be an object lesson. 

Bogert, J. Augustus., Eastman, H., Merrill, R. (1843-1854). Stories about dogs. Concord, N.H.: Rufus Merrill.

a 14th century cat door

art.thewalters.org CC0 license

The 14th-century French cat that used this kitty door must have been a scrawny, hardworking petit chat indeed.  This fine example of feline ingress (and egress, and ingress - do cats go in and out as much when they are calling the shots?) is found at this page of the the Walters Art Museum.  There you'll find that while not many examples of cat doors have survived from the Middle Ages, no less a source than Geoffrey Chaucer mentions one in "The Miller's Tale."  There's also one at Manchester, England's Chetham Library, in a door dating from 1421.

vintage wordless wednesday

a new one finally!  bought in astoria 9-16-17