A trio of Siamese kittens sleep on a sofa in Washington, D.C.

An owner lovingly strokes her Persian in New York City. The 1938 National Geographic article captioned this image as “Stately, kindly, lordly friend, condescend here to sit by me.”

A pair of blue Persian cats pose on a recliner in Bogota, New Jersey. At the time, in the 1930s, the blue Persian regularly won best-in-show cat competitions.

A trio of Persian cats—which Eddy described as “unusually affectionate”—recline on furniture in Silver Spring, Maryland.

“Wary Princess Pat, with silvery frill and hypnotic stare, seems poised for flight,” Frederick Eddy wrote in the November 1938 National Geographic. The smoke Persian lived in New York City.

A black domestic shorthair named Midnight sits in front of the fireplace in Washington, D.C. Culver notes that the cat “had to be dragged, snarling, from under the sofa for a split-second pose.”

A blue Persian stares intensely at a goldfish bowl in Washington, D.C.

A Burmese cat poses in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At the time, Elmer was one of the only Burmese cats in the eastern U.S.

Three tailless Manx cats play on furniture in Washington, D.C.

“You can throw me on the table, but just try to put me on the shelf!” Eddy captioned this image of a champion red Persian in the 1938 National Geographic magazine article.

A pair of Siamese cats huddle together for a photo in Newton, Massachusetts.

A tortoiseshell domestic shorthair, named Joseph for her “coat of many colours,” perches on a shelf in Washington, D.C. “Only on humiliating hands and knees may fond humans visit this scornful kitty in her own domain,” Eddy wrote in the magazine article.