Pets and the City

New York has no shortage of beloved pets: think of the long lineage of cats who have resided at the Algonquin hotel, or of Jim, Phil and Harry, the peacocks that strutted their stuff for two decades at the Cathedral of St John the Divine (their reign ended last year, when they retired to a sanctuary in Westchester County). This exhibition at the New-York Historical Society chronicles the deep affection New Yorkers have long felt for their animal companions (25 October–20 April 2025). But the cuddly concept of the show belies its ambitious scope: it also covers the changing role of animals in American cities, from the arrival of European settlers to the present day, as well as looking at the historic role of pets in Indigenous societies and surveying aspects of the pet experience both dark (animal trafficking, animal rights infractions) and, at least for us, heartening (their role as service creatures).

Find out more from the New-York Historical Society’s website.

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary

Father Teizen and his Dog Brownie (c. 1911–21), William Davis Hassler. New-York Historical Society

A business card for Manhattan Bird Store (n.d.) by Meyer, Merkel & Ottmann Lithography. New-York Historical Society

William Gray Hassler seated at a small table eating Quaker Puffed Rice cereal, with Reddy the Cat (1912), photographed by William Davis Hassler. New-York Historical Society

Flaco at the New-York Historical Society (2024), Anna Eggleton. New-York Historical Society