Pets in Colonial America

Training the Puppy

People have enjoyed keeping pets for thousands of years. Have you ever wondered what type of animals were domesticated in Colonial America? Colonials referred to their pets as their "favorites." They enjoyed having their portraits painted with their their beloved creatures, providing us with a record of their fondness for animals...sometimes taken from the wild. However, one must note that the animals may not have been cooperative for the sitting and it may have been painted in. Yet, the pet obsession is still evident.

Naturally, there was the family dog. Smaller varieties were called comfort dogs, while most others were sporting dogs. Breeds included spaniels, hounds, setters, pointers,  terriers, bulldogs, and mastiffs. George Washington journaled an inventory of dog breeds.

The Peale Family with Dog by Charles Willson Peale

Birds of all varieties were in vogue, caged and leashed. Songbirds such as cardinals and mockingbirds were especially popular.

 

Girl with Bird and Dog by John Singleton Copley

 

  Huzzah! I just discovered that this painting (below) is in our local college art museum. Must see!

Anne Fairchild Mrs Metcal Bowler by John Singleton Copley

In Kittery, Maine, Colonial Governor, Sir William Pepperel stocked his park with deer, others kept deer for their hunting stock, but sometimes as pets. In 1752, Dr. Benjamin Jones of Virginia “kept over a hundred deer to amuse his children and grandchildren. A little bell he used on a pet deer is owned by one of his descendants.”

Boy with a Deer by John Van Cortlandt

 

 

Finnish-Swedish naturalist, Peter Kalm, when he traveled tot he American colonies in 1748-51 observed that, "The raccoon can in time be made so tame as to run about the streets like a domestic animal; but it is impossible to make it leave off its habit of stealing. . .Beavers have been tamed to such an extent that they have brought home what they caught by fishing to their masters. This is often the case with otters, of which I have seen some that were as tame as dogs, and followed their master wherever he went."

Deborah Hall by William Williams

In 1798, Elizabeth Drinker of Philadelphia wrote in her diary that her son William had “bought a flying squirrel in market, brought it home to please the children. I should have been better pleased had it remained in the woods."

A Boy with a Flying Squirrel by John Singleton Copley

Mrs William Cole and her cat by George Beare

  

Miss Frances Warren by Joseph Wright

 

Young Girl Holding a Monkey by Rosalba Carriera

What kind of animal would you enjoy having as a pet if you lived in colonial times?

RESOURCES: 

Out of this Century

18th Century American Women

Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America By Virginia DeJohn Anderson
Pets in America: A History By Katherine C. Grier