Brünnhilde
Historical 1936 · 1936 costume photographs by Adolph Edward Weidhaas; United States Library of Congress collection
A dignified, theatrical-looking tabby immortalized posing solemnly in operatic Valkyrie armor.
Short summary: Brünnhilde was a female tabby cat known from two photographs taken in 1936 in which she wears a miniature costume of her operatic namesake, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde from Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, complete with a winged helmet and breastplate armor. She was adopted as a stray by Adolph Edward Weidhaas, who photographed her and displayed the images at a New York City photography shop as advertisements. The portraits later entered the United States Library of Congress collection and featured in its exhibit Not an Ostrich. In January 2023, the Library digitized the front-facing photograph and shared it online, where it went viral, proving that dressing pets for dramatic portraits long predates social media.
Extended biography for this entry has not been written yet — we expand entries in batches and fact-check them against Wikipedia and primary sources. For now, see the Wikipedia entry.
Tags
tabby coat
winged helmet costume
breastplate armor
Wagner Valkyrie theme
vintage photograph
Library of Congress
viral 2023
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