35 Vintage Cats Making Meme Material Before the Internet was a Thing

Ayala Sorotsky • Writer and Editor

Jul 12, 2026 8:45 AM EDT

In the eyes of history, the internet is just in its infancy. But cats are furrever.

I've always been an internet dweller. Maybe not from its public inception (I'm not that old), but since I could get my hands on a computer - I've been logged in. And since I've clicked on that Explorer desktop icon (you know, before other browsers were an actual option), I've been exposed to the most common thing online… cat content, of course. What were you expecting there, huh? But the thing is, cats weren't popularized because of the internet. Sure, we at I Can Has Cheezburger owe our success to online cat connoisseurs - but that's all a spec of dust on the timeline of history. Humanity was always obsessed with cats.

The internet is merely another platform to worship cats, and a newer one. People have always adored their fluffy feline friends, and it shows. How does it show? Depends on the era. Cats were literally worshiped in ancient Egypt, and there are countless archaeological digs that find cat remains buried with their people. In later times, when lords and nobles had their portrait taken, some chose to commemorate their beloved cats in the frame - so we have much cat pawrenting evidence in museums around the world. And a little later? Well, we've had the camera.

Humanity now is not so different. My phone's gallery is filled to the brim with pictures of my cat, but even before this technology existed - people were documenting their cats on camera of the vintage kind. And these are exactly the pictures I want to show you here. Today, I want to take you on a journey to the past - a past filled with black and while pictures of cats doing their cat thing, even before your parents were born. Because that's just how timeless cats are.

Cats are furrever.

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Being a French student, I can read that this cat stands on a sign that says “The Golden Lion”. I did some googling, but couldn't find this specific location. There are multiple coffee shops with the same name in Switzerland, France, and other locations. But I'm curious - if anyone knows the location this picture was taken, I'm keen on knowing.
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