Written By: Liz Ronk, Olivia B. Waxman

The above gallery features some familiar feline-friendly faces: There’s a 1959 photo of writer Ernest Hemingway, who collected six-toed cats, with a cat helping itself to a glass of water. (Hemingway’s cats may have drunk more than water, with one letter suggesting the author fed one named “Friendless” whisky and milk when he was feeling lonely and wanted to drink with somebody.) And there’s Fred Astaire palling around in 1962 with the Siamese cat that fellow film star Kim Novak, also pictured, had given him. “Animals loved Daddy,” his daughter Ava later told Vanity Fair‘s editor-at-large, Sarah Giles.

But it’s also clear that a cat can be a star whether or not its owner is famous. For example, in 1958, when Navy doctor Dietrich Beischer used magnet boots to train a kitten to chase a mouse upside-down, to get a sense of how humans would deal with weightlessness, the cat played an important role in the history of space travel. And as for a cat in a funny hat or a cat eating corn on the cob well, some things never change. After all, every day is cat day in the age of social media.

For the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s International Cat Day this Tuesday a purrfect excuse for such a gallery here’s a look at 25 of the best feline photos in LIFE’s iconic archive of 20th century photography.

Kitten emerging from pot of milk after falling into it, 1940.

International Cat Day

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Aspiring ballerina Edwina Seaver relaxing on sofa at home with Siamese cat Ting Ling, 1940.

International Cat Day

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

A cat in a carrier during an air raid, 1941.

International Cat Day

John Phillips The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Portrait of Blackie, LIFE photographer Gjon Mili's cat, 1943.

International Cat Day

Gjon Mili The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

A husky Persian cat posing with his ribbions and trophy at the Atlantic City Cat Show, 1945.

International Cat Day

Jerry Cooke The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Rudy the Dachshund and Trudy the cat engaged in hide and seek or'pounce on the dog" in prelude to friendly roughhousing wrestling match between the pet housemates. 1946.

International Cat Day

Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Baby the Seeing Eye Cat, 1947.

International Cat Day

Loran F. Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Cat on Wheels, 1948.

International Cat Day

Michael Rougier The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

A cat named Monkey with a large hat collection, circa 1948/1949.

International Cat Day

James Whitmore The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Nipper, the corn loving cat, 1951.

International Cat Day

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Russian-born American operatic mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel sings as a cat named Blackie sits on a piano, 1952.

International Cat Day

Gjon Mili The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Sharon Adams, 10, playing in a snow drift as her cat maintains its comfortable perch atop her head, 1952.

v

A. Y. Owen The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Dutch billiards prodigy Renske Quax feeding cream to his cat, 1953.

International Cat Day

Nat Farbman The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Cats Blackie Brownie catching squirts of milk during milking at Arch Badertscher's dairy farm. 1954.

International Cat Day

Nat Farbman The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Pets of the Lyng family, Mitten the cat, Tosen the dog and an unnamed mouse, 1955.

International Cat Day

Jytte Bjerregaard Muller The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Composer Alan Hovhaness, working in score littered studio with a black cat nestling amongst the papers on the piano, 1955.

International Cat Day

Gordon Parks The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Kim Novak playing with some Siamese cats that were used in one of her movies, "Bell, Book and Candle," 1958.

International Cat Day

Eliot Elisofon The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Naval researcher Dr. Dietrich Beischer testing effects of being upside-down for prolonged periods of time on a cat and mouse, 1958.

International Cat Day

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Ernest Hemingway sitting while a cat drinks out of a water glass on the table, 1959.

International Cat Day

Tore Johnson The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Otto Preminger looking at stray cats on Venice street while attending Venice Film Festival at which his film "Anatomy of a Murder" was shown, 1959.

International Cat Day

Gjon Mili The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Black cats and their owners in line for audition and casting for movie "Tales of Terror," 1961.

International Cat Day

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Ordinary striped tabby cats waiting on beach as a man goes out into the water to catch fish, 1962.

International Cat Day

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Fred Astaire dancing with his Siamese cat on his shoulder, 1962.

International Cat Day

John Swope The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Manipulation of light to create emotive and visual effects with a cat, 1963.

International Cat Day

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Poet Rod McKuen playing record on stereo set while pet Siamese cat nuzzles his face affectionately, 1967.

International Cat Day

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

More Like This

animals

When Maine Really Wanted Its Caribou Back

animals

Celebrities’ Best Friends

George H.W. Bush in 1971 animals

See Inside the Private Family Life of a Young George H.W. Bush

Troika race at Hippodrome, 1963. animals

The Mane Event: LIFE’s 25 Most Memorable Horses

John Dominis African antelopes, 1969. animals

How John Dominis Photographed Wild Antelope Without a Telephoto Lens

Long Island Rabbit Breeders Association Rabbit show, circa 1943. animals

Unpublished Rabbit Photos From the LIFE Archives Put Bunnies in the Spotlight