Pet Historical Articles

A short 4 page synopsis on who developed some of the beautiful strains of angelfish we see today. I had the opportunity to visit Chuck Ash’s (developed the marble angelfish) ...

Reprinted courtesy of the The Crystal Palace Foundation ...

1960s historical article from the San Francisco Aquarium Society on the hatching and raising of brine shrimp. At the time, this aquarium society controlled all the harvest of brine shrimp ...

England’s famous Harrods Department store “Posh Pet Department,” from Pet Age Magazine (Feb. 1972) ...

An article featuring all the color mutations on the pet hamster in 1960. From the June 1960 edition of All-Pets Magazine ...

An article highlighting Harrison Weir and his creation of the first cat show at Crystal Palace (London, England) in 1871 - Charity No. 285563 ...

The aquarium hobby in Mexico in 1958 from Tropicals Magazine - Summer 1958 ...

The famous people above who could not live without their pet cats. From Pet Life Magazine - Fall, 1966 ...

An article from the October 1938 edition of All-Pets Magazine underlining the appropriate means of transporting animals including crates, C.O.D. shipments, and costs ...

An interesting historical article from a 1919 Popular Mechanics issue on the parrot and cockatoo industry in California. Notice that even 100+ years ago, they spoke out that captive breeding ...

In the 1930s, show organizers played a game of cat and mouse to bring in more attendees by literally inviting both cat enthusiasts and mouse enthusiasts to display their prized ...

Despite the claims in this ad that E.W. Taxis is the oldest aquarium manufacturer in the United States, we have found no additional records about this company, indicating they may ...

A short correction release in the December 1934 edition of Aquarium News giving credit to famous aquarist Walter Brind for helping Innes write the "Tropical Fish" section of his first ...

An early history of O'Dell Industries, an early manufacturer of All-Glass aquariums after the invention of silicone rubber. From the October 1975 edition of Aquarium Industry ...

An article from the April 1937 edition of All-Pets Magazine detailing how to properly document records when breeding pedigree-quality cavies ...

One of the many articles on what happens when you open your bird cage and set it free! From the December 1936 edition of All-Pets Magazine ...

From a Deep Burrow (history of the first hamsters in captivity). Originally published in The Hamster Handbook by H. Deaton and T.W. Pond in 1956 ...

Last month we interviewed Frank Miser, who still comes to work every day at 100 years old! This article from the December-January 1983 edition of AFA Watchbird Magazine shares a ...

Notes from a talk by Neal Teitler in London. Published in the March 1970 edition of PetFish Monthly ...

This article was written by Graeme Hyde OAM in Australia. Graeme was awarded the OAM in 2021, which is the Medal of the Order of Australia and is equivalent to ...

Steinhart Aquarium's expedition to collect a live coelacanth. From the April 1975 edition of Aquarium Industry ...

Article written in 1970 by David Blair about his aquarist adventures in Ghana, featuring a special mention and photo of a young Paul Loiselle! ...

A short article from the October 1956 issue of American Cage-Bird Magazine on "Barnumesque Budgies", or how to train your budgies to do circus act tricks! ...

I always wanted a pet crow as a kid. This is an interesting short article on keeping them in captivity circa 1940s. From the June 1943 edition of All-Pets Magazine ...

Grace Olive Wiley (1883–1948), a librarian at the Minneapolis Public Library, wrote a letter to John J. McCutcheon, president of the Brookfield Zoo’s Zoological Society on 29 January 1927, applying ...

Could this have been the inspiration for the plastic ant farm craze?! From the May 1936 edition of All-Pets Magazine ...

Article from July 1940 edition of Pets Magazine on the trained exotic pets that make movie history ...

Article/booklet recounting the various species of bettas that were discovered and became popular in the first 100 years of keeping them as pets ...

A 1925 booklet on the capture and exhibition of “Rajah,” the giant python. Written by Louis J. Beck ...

Oren E. Adams developed the first lyretail sword tropical fish, which appeared on the cover of Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine.This article from 1973 shares a look into his life ...

Article from 1901 published in the Harmsworth London magazine recounting an entertaining performance by the beloved pet birds of Signore Ferrari ...

An article published in Modern Mechanics on the popularity of unusual pets during this time period. Yes, over 100 years ago, you could have a Koala Bear from Australia as ...

Amazing storefront and article on Jo Ann Marvin, who supplied much of the Hollywood crowd in the 1960s. From Pet Industry Magazine 1961 ...

This is an over one hundred-year-old article on collecting bird cages from all over the world. Most of these cages were made of wood and wire and were not US-made ...

This is yet another one hundred plus year old article on Gay's Gold-Fish Farm in England showing how they kept and transported (metal shipping cans) goldfish. Check out the Victorian ...

Even the brick and brown-stone wilderness of New York city affords the alert disciple of Audubon refreshing glimpses of the feathered race. Not infrequently some broad-winged, rock-like bird wheels its ...

Artistic aquariums, placed on equally attractive stands or table pedestals, greatly improve the appearance of your living room. A stand like that shown above is quite ornamental in spite of ...

Early history of the goldfish by G.F. Hervey, who wrote "The Goldfish" book in 1948 ...

Tommy Tucker is a 2-year-old squirrel who lives with Mrs. Mark Bullis of Washington, D.C. Mrs. Bullis adopted Tommy before his eyes were open when his mother died and left ...

A piece of advertising that was sent to us by our friend Lee Finley. He rescued it from someone's fish room many years ago. The piece is 8.5"x11" and tri-folded ...

A piece of Spratt's advertising that was sent to us by our friend Lee Finley. The whole ad is a single sheet that measures 6"x14", and each page is 6"x3.5" ...

Snakes listed for sale from 1896. Catalog for Schmid’s Bird and Pet Animal Emporium in Washington D.C. Schmid’s was a huge pet store/mail-order house that also sold birds, dogs, cats, ...

Story of the great heights and great falls of the Berlin Aquarium throughout its 100+ year existence ...

Have you ever been curious what it’s like to keep a pet raccoon? This article from Pet Life’s Summer 1958 edition shares some of the chaos and joy that come ...

A window into some of the unusual pets celebrities of the 1950s had. Some stars went as far as to have skunks, ocelots, and anteaters! Also interesting to note that ...

The pair of seals now domesticated at the Aquarial Gardens, Boston, have attracted so much attention and remark by their pleasing and wonderful performances, that we shall gratify not only ...

A New York correspondent of the National Intelligencer, furnishes the following interesting information: You will not suspect your occasional correspondent of any undue leaning to modern isms. Yet there is ...

We need more domestic production of pet skunks to protect the public from the unlawful traffic in the sale of wild caught skunks I am aware of the rabies problem ...

Three budgerigars, who "talked" their way into winning the B.B.C.'s "Home for the Day" cage word contest, were taken by their owners to the B.B.C. Press Office in Cavendish Place, ...

In line with a trend to endowing apartment house lobbies with plant or animal life instead of over-abundant furniture, the builder of the Cortelyou apartment house in Brooklyn has installed ...