Images Dated 2008 December

The Youngers, American outlaws, c1868-1876 (1954)

The Youngers, American outlaws, c1868-1876 (1954). Left to right: Bob, Rhetta, James and Cole. The brothers formed part of the notorious James-Younger gang, with Jesse and Frank James. The gang robbed banks, stagecoaches and trains across the West between 1869 and 1876. A fourth brother, John, was killed in a gunfight with Pinkertons agents in 1874. The surviving three Youngers were wounded and captured by a posse after the gang robbed a bank in Northfield, Minnesota on 7th September 1876. All three were sentenced to life mprisonment after pleading guilty to their crimes in order to avoid hanging. A print from the Pictorial History of the Wild West, by James D Horan and Paul Sann, Spring Books, London, 1954

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Lord Shelburne, 18th century British Whig statesman, c1880

Lord Shelburne, 18th century British Whig statesman, c1880. William Petty (1737-1805), 2nd Earl of Shelburne agreed to accept the office of Home Secretary in Lord Rockingham's government in 1782 on condition that King George III agreed to recognise the United States. He became Prime Minister after Lord Rockingham died later the same year, but resigned in April the following year after Charles James Fox split the Whig party and formed a coalition with Lord North and the Tories. A print from Cassell's History of the United States, by Edmund Ollier, Volume II, Cassell Petter and Galpin, London, c1880

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Captain Bainbridge and the Dey of Algiers, 1800 (c1880) Artist: Hooper

Captain Bainbridge and the Dey of Algiers, 1800 (c1880). William Bainbridge was the commander of the George Washington, sent to carry the tribute that the United States paid to the Dey of Algiers so that American merchant ships would not be attacked by him in the Mediterranean. Upon his arrival, Bainbridge anchored in Algiers harbour under the guns of the port's fort. The Dey demanded that the George Washington transport his ambassador to Constantinople or be bombarded. Bainbridge was forced to comply in order to save his ship and crew from destruction. When Thomas Jefferson became President of the United states the following year he refused to continue the policy of bribing the pirates of the North African coast to safeguard American shipping and launched a naval campaign against them (First Barbary War). A print from Cassell's History of the United States, by Edmund Ollier, Volume II, Cassell Petter and Galpin, London, c1880

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