Saturday
Jan302010
What of the Horse a Hundred Years Hence? (1890)
Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 4:46PM 
People of the year 2000, amazed at the sight of a horse. (French postcard circa 1910)
At the turn of the 20th century we saw a lot of speculation that, thanks to the automobile, the horse could very well be extinct by the year 2000. The excerpt below comes from the October 19, 1890 Chillicothe Constitution (Chillicothe, MO).
As one watches an electric motor, does he wonder whether a hundred years hence a horse will not be as rare as a camel or an elephant is to-day?
Previously on Paleo-Future:
- Future of Steam (1889)
- Predictions for 1993 (1893)
- What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years (Ladies Home Journal, 1900)
- In the Twentieth Century (1901)
- More Predictions of a 14-Year-Old (1901)
- French Prints Show the Year 2000 (1910)
Reader Comments (4)
Some historical horse population data, showing a definite, presumably auto-related decline in the early part of the 20th century, but a rebound since.
And while the man in the yellow hat watches the show, Curious George goes on a terrible rampage... because in the future, Curious George will be a robot monkey with the annoyingness of a thousand regular monkeys.
Show us this "the horse", that we may marvel at the sight of it!
Not cool, dude.