In the early 1900s, English colonizers discovered a strange new animal which resembled the horses they knew back home, but with a dash of pizzazz: the zebra. They were, of course, intrigued by their new equine findings and set out to domesticate the wild animals for transportation.
As you probably noticed, due to the lack of documentation in history books, the attempt didn’t really take off. Though zebras do share a lot in common with their horse cousins, and have added benefits like a resistance to diseases carried by tsetse flies, they simply couldn’t be completely tamed.
But you can’t say it’s for lack of trying. These historical photos provide a glimpse of what you might have seen on your commute back in the day.
Imagine your cabbie rolling up with one of these fellas.
Getty Images / Topical Press Agency / Stringer
Just your average traffic jam in 1935.
Getty Images / Fox Photos / Stringer
“I could do this in my sleep.”
This is how Dr. Rosendo Ribeiro took house calls in Kenya.
Adventure seeker Osa Johnson always kept it classy in black-and-white, shown here in 1924.
This was taken around 1930 in Calcutta, India.
Getty Images / Imagno
“So, what’re you in for?”
Getty Images / Keystone-France
Walter Rothschild made sure the royals took notice when he rode up to Buckingham Palace.
A couple of soldiers from Germany’s calvary of colonial force in East Africa, 1911.
It is kind of a bummer that it didn’t work out. How cool would it be to ride one of these to your office? It’s almost like they were the snazzy new sports car of the early 20th century.
Of course, we’re also grateful they weren’t able to be tamed because otherwise we wouldn’t be able to see them in all their wild glory.
