The Question Settled, 1865 lithograph by E.B. and E.C. Kellogg.
Library of Congress
In 1865, lithographers E.B. and E.C. Kellogg offered a peculiarly feline interpretation of the recently concluded Civil War. Titled The Question Settled, the print features three kittens on a flag-draped table. The white kitten, wearing a stern look and a red, white, and blue ribbon with the words “Old Abe” around its neck, forces the gray kitten, with a rope around its neck marked “Jeff,” from the patriotically printed milk pan in which they’re standing. A third, black cat, wearing a ribbon marked “contraband,” peeks out from the protection of Old Abe, its paw resting on a map of the southern states. If only the actual conflict had been so bloodless.
Related topics: animals
