Images

The Olmec civilization, flourishing along the Gulf Coast of Mexico between c. 1200 and 400 BCE, represents one of the earliest complex societies in Mesoamerica and is often described as its “mother culture.” Emerging in the fertile lowlands...

A replica of an early Bowie Knife of the type made for Rezin Bowie and commissioned by the Bowies to Searles and Constable. This is a copy of the Fowler Bowie Knife currently displayed at the Alamo. James or Resin Bowie gave the original...

A pile of expended artillery shells fired during the First Battle of the Somme (July-November 1916) in the First World War (1914-18). Imperial War Museums, London.

Red River at Alexandria, Louisiana. Approximating what the sandbar on the Mississippi River might have looked like at the Sandbar Fight of 1827, which made James Bowie famous. Photograph by Billy Hathorn, 2008.

A 1917 photograph of a destroyed British Mark I tank, a relic of the First Battle of the Somme (July-November 1916) in the First World War (1914-18). Imperial War Museums, London.

Portrait of Niccolò Paganini, lithographic print by Charles George Lewis after Edwin Landseer, 1849. Depicted here is the famed Italian violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) in three-quarter length and in profile to the left...

Bowie knife, blade marked "G. Wostenholm & Son, Washington Work, I-XL, the real IXL knife, The Hunters Companion." The "Bowie knife" is famous from the Sandbar Fight of 1827, during which James 'Jim' Bowie first used such a knife to effect...

Portrait of Jean-Baptiste de La Rochefoucauld, Duc d'Anville, painting by F. de Troy. The Duc d'Anville led an ill-fated military expedition to Nova Scotia during King George's War (1744-1748) to engage against the English and retake the...

The Siege of Louisbourg, painting by Domenick d’Andrea and Rick Reeves. Depicted here are New England provincial soldiers at the 1745 Siege of Louisbourg during King George's War (1744-1748). National Guard Bureau, Historical Services Branch...

A German steel gas alarm gong, to be struck in the trenches as a warning when under attack by poisonous gas during the First World War (1914-1918). (Imperial War Museums)