Robert Gallery

Construction of the Kilsby Tunnel on the London & Birmingham Railway, 8 July 1839. Artist: John Cooke Bourne

Construction of the Kilsby Tunnel on the London & Birmingham Railway, 8 July 1837 (1839). Robert Stephenson (1803-1859) was appointed chief engineer of the London & Birmingham Railway (LBR), the first railway into London. Running between Curzon Street Station, Birmingham, and Euston Station, London, the 112 mile long line took 20, 000 men nearly five years to build, at a cost of five and a half million pounds. The excavation of the tunnel at Kilsby, Northamptonshire was one of the greatest engineering challenges on the LBR, due to problems with quicksand. The LBR opened on 17 September 1838. From Drawings of the London and Birmingham Railway by J Bourne, 1839

© Oxford Science Archive / Heritage-Images

The Black Watch. Forward the 42nd! at the Alma, 1854, (1939)

The Black Watch. Forward the 42nd! at the Alma, 1854, (1939). The Battle of the Alma (20 September 1854), which is usually considered the first battle of the Crimean War, took place in the vicinity of the River Alma in the Crimea. An Anglo-French force under General St. Arnaud and Lord Raglan defeated General Menshikov's Russian army, which lost around 6000 troops. Here a Scots regiment under Sir Colin Campbell storm a Russian-held hill. From Battles for the Flag, a set of cards given away with British boys comic The Wizard. [D. C. Thomson & Co. Dundee, 1939]

© The Print Collector / Heritage-Images

City of Milwaukee, 1874. Creator: Robert Hinshelwood

City of Milwaukee, 1874. View of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. The name "Milwaukee" carries in its sound the evidence of its Indian origin. It is a modified spelling of "Milwacky", the designation given by the Indians to a small village near the site of the present city, and is said to signify "rich or beautiful land". Like so many of the Western cities that we carelessly call new and young, Milwaukee has a history reaching far beyond the time of written records. Not only are there relics here of very ancient Indian habitations, but the mounds found and opened near the town show unmistakable proofs of the residence of an even earlier race, whose very traditions are now extinct'. From "Picturesque America; or, The Land We Live In, A Delineation by Pen and Pencil of the Mountains, Rivers, Lakes...with Illustrations on Steel and Wood by Eminent American Artists" Vol. II, edited by William Cullen Bryant. [D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1874]

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images