Pets & their People

About the exhibition

We have been domesticating animals for over ten thousand years. But why do we want tame wolves in our homes or wild cats on our laps?

This exhibition explores the relationship between humans and their pets – or pets and their humans.

Pets & their People draws on depictions of pets in stories, imagery and poetry in the Bodleian's collection – from one of the earliest recorded depictions of an assistance dog for the blind to a rare copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that has never been displayed in the UK before. The exhibition asks how the special bond between owners and their pets has evolved over time, and what that evolution tells us about who we really are.

Are we taming our pets, or are they bring us back to our wild roots?

Exhibition book

Pets & their People

By Charles Foster

Bestselling author Charles Foster provides an extraordinary mix of psychology, science and cultural history as he explores the fascinating relationship between humans and their pets.

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