Installed at Maine Historical Society February 11 to June 6, 2025. Curated by Tilly Laskey, Maine historical Society Curator.
Humans and their animal companions started sharing lives about twenty-five thousand years ago, when—according to archaeological evidence and genetic studies—wolves approached human camps seeking food scraps. As agriculture grew and people began storing grains around ten thousand years ago, wild cats kept rodents at bay and thrived by living near humans and a steady food source. Over time, these animals morphed into the dogs and cats we know today, becoming our home companions—our pets.
Spring kittens on a Maine farm, ca. 1910
Item Contributed by
Stanley Museum on deposit at Maine Historical Society
The word “pet” comes from a sixteenth century Scottish word, describing an affectionate bond between domesticated or tamed animals and people. Changing cultural attitudes toward animal care during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries prompted people to bring pets indoors, and into families.
Many Mainers have dogs and cats as their primary animal companions. Some pet choices in the past were unconventional,
including moose, deer, raccoons, and even seals! Highlighting the attachment between humans and pets, as of 2024, 59 percent of US households own a pet. In Maine, 64 percent of homes have pets—of those, approximately 36 percent have dogs, 44 percent have cats, and under 4 percent each of fish, birds, small mammals, and reptiles. Pet guardians spend approximately 67 million dollars on animals each year in Maine. However, research shows that pets also care for humans by providing health benefits for people, including increased longevity, emotional support, and reduced stress levels.
Dogs with Jobs
Wabanaki culture hero Gluscabe traveled with a dog since time immemorial, documented by oral histories and petroglyphs. Humans also have a long history of living with dogs. Wolves are the common ancestor to all modern dogs, and over centuries, people selected certain dogs for specific traits, including herding, security, hunting, and companionship.
Centuries of breeding resulted in a vast range of sizes, shapes, and dog temperaments—from Chihuahuas to Great Danes. While there are four hundred officially recognized breeds of dogs, many people prefer canines of multiple heritages, which Maine author, E.B. White, famously celebrated in his 1940 book, Dog Training,
A really companionable and indispensable dog is an accident of nature. You can’t get it by breeding for it, and you can’t buy it with money. It just happens along.
Many dogs work for humans, helping on farms, as livestock guards, pulling sleds, or assisting hunters. Because of their companionship qualities, some dogs also have jobs tailored to individual people, such as therapy animals and guide dogs.
Dog Sledding
Arthur T. Walden and Chinook, Portland, 1922
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society/MaineToday Media
Chinooks
Arthur Walden (1871-1947) created the Chinook breed in Wonalancet, New Hampshire to support his dog sledding activities, a skill he learned in Alaska. A pairing of a Mastiff-type dog named Kim with Ningo, a descendant of Polar explorer Admiral Robert Peary's Greenland Husky, Polaris, resulted in three puppies born on January 17, 1917. Walden named one “Chinook” after a sled dog he worked with in Alaska. Today, all Chinook dogs trace their lineage to this original dog.
Walden brought sled dog sports to the east coast in 1920 and founded the New England Sled Dog Club in 1924. Chinook became Walden’s lead dog, and together they were the first to ascend Mount Washington by sled, and later joined Admiral Richard Byrd's 1928 expedition to Antarctica. On the return trip from Byrd’s camp, twelveyear-old Chinook went missing. Despite Walden’s searching, he never found Chinook.
After Walden’s death, Chinook populations dwindled. Breeders in Greene and Waldoboro, Maine operated until the 1960s. By 1981, only eleven viable Chinooks survived. Chinook breeders around the country are working to maintain a healthy, genetically sustainable Chinook population.
Elizabeth P. Ricker and Togo, Poland Spring, 1928
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society/MaineToday Media
Huskies
Siberian Huskies gained fame in 1925, when sled teams delivered diphtheria vaccines during an outbreak in isolated Nome, Alaska. Musher Leonhard Seppala's lead sled dog, Togo, became an international celebrity after their hazardous 261-mile run. Poland Spring Resort hosted dog sled competitions in 1926 and 1927 where Seppala (1877-1967) met Elizabeth Ricker (1900-1991), a musher and owner of the resort. They established the first Siberian Husky breeding kennel in the lower 48 states at Poland Spring, supplying sled racers in New England with Togo’s descendants.
When Seppala returned to Alaska in March 1927, he left Togo in Maine, concerned that the trip would be difficult for the elder dog. Togo lived to sixteen years old with the Ricker family. At age eighty-one, Seppala continued to think about Togo, and wrote in his diary,
The end of the course seems pretty smooth, with downhill going and a warm roadhouse in sight. And when I come to the end of the rail, I feel that along with my many friends, Togo will be waiting and I know that everything will be all right.
Cats, From Ships to Sofas
Many archaeologists think wild cats domesticated themselves more than ten thousand years ago, when the felines discovered human settlements had a steady supply of rodents to eat. Cat domestication began in the Middle East, spreading into Egypt and China about four thousand years ago.
DNA from ancient cat burials in port cities show that people brought cats on ships, likely to protect food against mice and rats, and began spreading cat populations across the world. In modern times, sailors believed cats brought good luck on the ships. Crews often adopted cats as mascots, and captains watched them for certain behaviors, since cats can detect changes in air pressure and storms.
Cats are different from other pets because they are technically “semi-domesticated.” Domestication involves taming an animal through breeding and training, making it dependent on human care. With just forty-five breeds and little genetic difference between a tabby and a wild cat, biologists suggest the house cat is only domestic when it wants to be.
Pet Portraits
Pets filled a need for people yearning for the natural world during the nineteenth century’s Industrial Age, especially in cities.
Demonstrating the rising importance of pets, formal studio portraits featured pets as part of the family, or in some cases, as the subject of the portraits.
In the 1840s, people used the recently available technology of photography to memorialize pets. Photographers worked hard to keep animals still during the long exposure times, and capture their unique personalities. Candid and spontaneous photos of people and pets flourished around 1920, with the development of smaller, more portable cameras like the 35mm Leica.
Others memorialized pets in paintings and other artworks.
Animal Refuge
Animal welfare organizations emerged in the early 1900s, like the American Humane Society and the Animal Refuge League to temporarily support sick, lost, or abandoned animals.
Percival Baxter, Maine governor from 1921-1925, posed for a formal portrait with his Irish setter, Garryowen. When the dog died in 1923, Baxter ordered the State House flag lowered to half-staff and buried Garryowen with other pets in a family plot on Mackworth Island.
Baxter was a founding member of the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland and funded the first shelter on India Street. Baxter wrote a pamphlet, Humane Education in the Public Schools of Maine: Animals have Rights as well as We in 1924, featuring this photo on the interior and a portrait of Garryowen on the cover. Aimed at educators, the pamphlet detailed strategies for teachers to comply with a 1917 law mandating thirty minutes per week teaching, “kindness to birds and animals and regard for all factors which contribute to the well-being of man.”
Baxter’s message to children encouraged empathy and care, Whenever you see animals or birds being abused, do all you can to stop the abuse; and you yourselves never should fail to treat them kindly. If you boys and girls will live up to these principles, our State will be the finest in the whole world, and you will have done much to make it so.
What is a Pet?
The most common pets in the United States are dogs and cats. People also keep domestic animals like chickens, pigs, horses, or cows for work, food, or sometimes as pets.
Wild animals may sometimes trust and approach humans, or become captured and made pets. In 2025, the state of Maine has some of the strictest laws about keeping wild animals, birds, and fish. But historic photos document the unconventional pet choices Mainers made in the past leading to the question, what exactly is a pet?
Maine specifically prohibits several species as pets, including bear, moose, wild turkey, deer, lion, cheetah, wolf, monkey, camel, alligator, monk parakeet, and swan. The state regulates wildlife rescues to care for, rehabilitate, and release wild animals.
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