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 bringing us back to our wild roots?

Exhibition book

Decorative image

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.

Buy now Read an extract

  Curators

Charles Foster, Fellow of Exeter College and bestselling author of Being a Beast

Acknowledgements

Pets & their People is made possible with generous support from the John S Cohen Foundation.

Why does the Bodleian have pictures of people and their pets?

These wonderful images are actually postcards, collected by the artist Tom Phillips (1937–2022) and part of the archive donated to the Bodleian Libraries.

Dating from the c1890s – 1960s, they capture different relationships between people and the animals around them.

See more photos from the collection on our Pinterest.

Call for submissions

As part of this exhibition, we’d like your help to create a modern record of people and their pets. We’d love to see submissions of photos of you with your pet – either recreations of photos from the Tom Phillips postcard collection or something new. 

Send them to socialmedia@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. When you submit, please let us know: 

  •  Your name/handle
  •   Your pet’s name
  •   A rough geographic place and date

Terms and conditions

By submitting an image to the Bodleian Libraries, you confirm that:

  • You have taken the photograph or have permission from the copyright holder to share it.
  • All individuals featured in the image have given their consent for it to be used, or if under the age of 18, consent has been obtained by a parent or guardian.
  • You are happy for the Bodleian Libraries to share the image across its website, social media channels and other digital channels.

Participants may withdraw their consent at any time by contacting socialmedia@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

See our privacy notice.

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