***The Library will open LATE @ 12pm on Thursday 5/9 due to a Staff Meeting***
Gordon the Cat and Other Library Animals
Rafael Abrahams
No library history would be complete without attention paid to library cats, and the history of the Wayland Free Public Library is no exception.
Libraries have housed cats since ancient civilization. In his fifth-century BCE Histories, the Greek scholar Herodotus described the symbiotic relationship between humans and felines in ancient Egypt. Egyptian temples held libraries of papyrus texts, and ancient librarians trained cats to catch rodents and serpents in order to protect their sacred scrolls. In medieval Europe, monks found cats to be similarly useful in protecting costly and fragile manuscripts from hungry rats.
Perhaps the most famous example of cats residing in an educational establishment is the community of mousers that occupy the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1745, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna issued a decree that large cats capable of catching mice must be transported from Kazan to the Winter Palace. Although the Russian imperial dynasty has declined and the palace has been repurposed as a public museum, the cats remain. Whereas the cats’ original purpose was to protect Russian monarchs’ art collection, the animals themselves have become an attraction for visitors. The Hermitage collection includes masterpieces from prehistory to the present displayed in ornate galleries, but the museum’s “Catfest” event has motivated hundreds of feline fanciers (particularly children) to gather in the palace basement and share homemade cat portraits.
The WFPL inherited this distinguished, whiskered legacy. In the mid-1980s, a young Wayland resident named John Secor brought home a gray-brown cat named Gordon that he found abandoned at Bowdoin College in Maine. Gordie (as he quickly and affectionately became known) made his way around town and found hospitality and employment in Wayland’s Public Safety Building. Gordie proved to be a calming presence and helped ease the tense emotions of people in the building, and in 1988, he was decorated with a junior officer badge to honor his efforts.
Not content with a career in public security, Gordie also pursued work in library science, as evidenced by his meanderings within and around the WFPL. Gordie was especially fond of the children’s library and its patrons. In the 1990s, Gordie struck a deal with WFPL staff: if he was friendly to the children, librarians rewarded him with milk and water. Gordie is unfortunately no longer with us, and while nobody I’ve spoken with remembers precisely when he passed, everyone who knew him recalled his memory fondly.
While cats are historically librarians’ favorite animal companion, other animals have recently challenged felines’ distinguished status at the WFPL. Emily Kristofek, a regular Wayland library patron, enjoys bringing her young son to Animal Adventures programs at the WFPL. “My son has gotten to hold all sorts of exotic animals at the library,” Kristofek shared. “At the first program we brought him to, he was holding a python that spans the whole front row of seats in the Raytheon room, and he was only four. They brought an alligator, they brought a kinkajou, these are animals that we never thought we’d get up close to.” While reptiles and rainforest mammals might not compete with cats in terms of their ability to root out book-eating pests, these creatures have certainly been successful in attracting visitors to the WFPL and making the library a welcoming community center for young Waylanders.
Bibliography
Kagamaster, Allie B. “History of Library Cats.” Cat Fancy, November 11, 2009.
Kristofek, Emily. Oral interview conducted November 15, 2022.
McGrane, Sally. “Russia’s Museum Cats.” The New Yorker, September 25, 2012.
[https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/russias-museum-cats]
Roche, Liza. “Purrrrfect Partners: Wayland’s cat Gordon makes safety building, library his home.” Wayland Town Crier, October 16, 1997. [https://photos.app.goo.gl/iSkP2wD575ydHQPG7]