I wish there was a setting on Tumblr for “Automatically reblog NYPL’s Caturday posts.”

nypl:

It’s an avant garde kind of Caturday. Check out this photo of famed composer and musical innovator John Cage — whose 100th birthday was last Tuesday — with a very cute black cat. When you’re done with that, download The New York Public Library’s new iBook about Cage, which is totally free and features videos, unique images, rare Cage manuscript material and more (it’s part of the Library’s free iBook series, Point - check them all out). When you’re done with that, then go to The Library’s amazing John Cage Unbound project, a living archive of narrated performance videos by professional musicians, students, and performers - you can watch, listen to, and compare artistic interpretations. You can also get an up-close look at rare John Cage manuscripts, which are housed at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Once you’ve done all that and are totally inspired, submit your own video. Happy Caturday!

My question: What’s up with the fork?

From The Tale of Tom Kitten by Beatrix Potter. Source: New York Public Library.

nypl:

Today’s Caturday comes from legendary writer Robert Louis Stevenson (sort of) - it’s a photomechanical print depicting his poem “The Land Of Counterpane.” Note the adorable kitten on the end of the bed trying to cheer up the little boy, who is sick in bed and playing with his toy soldiers. The print by artist C.M. Burd is currently in the Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection (a collection Andy Warhol used, by the way) and was originally in a book of Stevenson’s Children’s Verses (likely from 1913, although it’s not totally clear). So happy Caturday! Love Robert Louis Stevenson? Check out some of his writing from NYPL! Or, if you want to do some serious research, the Library’s Berg Collection has some of Robert Louis Stevenson’s papers. Cool, right?

It’s raining here in Austin, too.

nypl:

It’s raining in NYC. It’s the middle of August.  Of course, you need something to do. Well, you can go to one of NYPL’s branches for free programs or to check out books (or you can download an eBook from home). Or you can … sketch a kitten. That’s what this cigarette card from between 1928 and 1934 is supposed to be teaching - how to sketch a kitten. The back of the card - found in the Library’s George Arents Collection - includes barely helpful instructions, such as, “First, it would be advisable to try action sketches before details such as the head; these should be made as quickly as possible, trying to retain in the mind the principle lines suggesting the movement.” Got it? Great. Happy Caturday!

nypl:

We thought this drawing from the 1887 book Home Picture Book for Little Children portraying a cat drinking coffee and a rabbit seemingly using snuff would be a cute (and slightly bizarre) feature for Caturday. According to the words scribbled in the left hand corner, this is part of an “animals as humans” category in our Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection. So enjoy! Happy Caturday! And, by the way, anyone with time this summer should definitely drop into the Picture Collection, which The Times wrote about this year. There are many, many pictures of cats.

nypl:

This odd French children’s book drawing by artist Auguste Vimar (which is from the late 1800s or early 1900s and is currently in our Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection) shows a poor cat, strolling down the street, pack slung over his shoulder, getting unpleasantly surprised by a bucket of water, thrown from an above apartment window by a monkey who is, of course, wearing a dress (which begs the question: why isn’t the cat wearing clothes? But we digress). The cat looks pretty darn annoyed in the last panel (he sort of turns into an evil comic book character or something). On this incredibly, incredibly hot Caturday, when we all sort of wish someone would throw buckets of water on us, we thought we’d share. Happy Caturday!

nypl:

Happy birthday to legendary writer Ernest Hemingway … and happy Caturday to you! The author of classics such as “The Old Man And The Sea” and “A Farewell To Arms” was a known cat fanatic, who once said “One cat just leads to another.” The photo above from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum shows Hemingway hanging with one of his cats in his home in Cuba (we have Hemingway photos, too, but alas, not with his kitties). The Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West is also known for its cats, which roam the premises freely and are descendents of Hemingway’s six-toed cat Snowball. There’s even a book called “Hemingway’s Cats,” which we have in our research collection. We also have plenty of books written by him, so check one out in his honor! Happy Caturday, and happy birthday, Hemingway!

nypl:

In honor of New York City Restaurant Week (which is celebrating its 20th anniversary and starts Monday) here is a Caturday with a culinary twist - it’s a 1900 menu from the Au Chat Noir Hotel and Restaurant, which had locations on both 28th Street and West Broadway. Purrrrfect, right? It also gives us an opportunity to send you to our newly redesigned What’s On The Menu page, where you can transcribe menus just like this one from our extensive collection to make the information more accessible to researchers. Oh, wait, one more thing. We also have a food-related exhibition at our 42nd Street building right now - Lunch Hour NYC. It’s free and fabulous - just ask the Times. Learn more about it in this new piece by Edible Manhattan. Anyone else hungry?

nypl:

Happy first Caturday of July! Enjoy this purrrfect 1898 lithograph to mark the occasion. It’s by artist Edward Penfield and is currently in the Art and Architecture Collection of the Library’s Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs. Enjoy!

nypl:

This week’s Caturday is an 1870’s print from our Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection depicting Robinson Crusoe eating with the dog and two cats he rescued from a shipwreck.