History
Images from the historical collections of major scientific institutions, historians, palaeontologists and a comprehensive archive of portraits throughout the ages.
A-Z portraits
Astronomy
Industry
Medicine
Nature
Palaeontology
Science
Spaceflight
Technology
Transport
Science Photo Library's Royalty Free History collection offers you special images that combine the unrivalled quality of Science Photo Library imagery with the flexibility of royalty free licensing.
The Natural History Museum in London is a world renowned institution in the study of earth science and wildlife. With it's roots stretching back before it's foundation by Richard Owen in 1881, it holds images and artwork of significant historical value including Charles Darwin's evolutionary research, the Piltdown man hoax, dinosaurs and the evolution of man.
Historic adverts promoting a range of products from radium-based facial cream and an anti-obesity drug to healing fruit salt and the first kitchen computer.
Eadweard Muybridge (1830 - 1904) was a pioneering photographer who changed the history of the moving image with the use of multiple cameras. Muybridge's experiments proved for the first time that a galloping horse lifted all four hooves off the ground.
We are proud to represent the Punch cartoon collection. The magazine, which ran from 1841 until 2002, is a British icon with an international reputation for its witty and irreverent take on the world. It showcased some of the world's greatest comic writers and finest cartoonists.
Past medical practises have included blood letting, urine therapy, trepanation and frightening the hysterics.
