Dangerous Collection

Bricklayers 1827
A bricklayer standing on a rather precarious looking scaffold. His assistant mixes mortar behind him; his hod for carrying bricks etc is nearby

Skerryvore Lighthouse, west coast of Scotland
View of Skerryvore Lighthouse, off the west coast of Scotland, completed in 1844. Seen here with a typically rough sea

Kraken attacking ship during a storm
A mythical Kraken attacking a sailing vessel during a storm

Propaganda poster: careless talk costs lives
Second world war propaganda poster warning people that careless talk costs lives. Tell nobody -- not even her

Poisonous Plants
Deadly Nightshade (Atropa Belladonna); Thorn Apple (Datura Stramonium); Henbane (Hyoscyamus Niger); Mezereon (Daphne Mezereum); Fools Parsley (Aethusa Cynapium);

WW2 - Flower-Class Corvette in heavy seas - Atlantic Convoy
WW2 - Weather hazards which the convoy escorts in the Atlantic Ocean have to face in Winter - a Flower-Class Corvette, of 930 tonnes, being thrown high out of the water by a heavy sea. Date: 1943

Norton. Isle of Man TT
500cc Norton racing at the Isle of Man TT, an annual motorcycle event run on the Isle of Man in May/June of most years since 1907. It regarded as one of the most dangerous racing events in the world

Beware of Trains - In English and Welsh
A metal sign in English and Welsh stating - Beware of Trains - likely to have been positioned at a footpath crossing or at a station

Bishop Rock Lighthouse in a gale
The Bishop Rock Lighthouse in a Force 8 gale. Bishop Rock is a small rock at the westernmost tip of the Isles of Scilly. It is the smallest island in the world to have a building on it

An angry Grizzly Bear
Enraged Grizzly Bear snarling and raising a dangerous-looking paw. Pastel sketch by Raymond Sheppard

Winston Churchill at Sidney Street Siege, East London
Winston Churchill, then Home Secretary, with a group of policemen during the Siege of Sidney Street in Stepney, East London, on 3 January 1911. Date: 1911

Canadian Rodeo
A cowboy riding a bucking bronco at a rodeo at Alberta, Canada. Date: early 1930s

A dangerous brew

Mouse held away from Mousetrap
" My Wife won t let me!" A male mouse is prevented by his wife from taking the unwise step of trying to obtain a tempting block of cheese from a little wire cage

COAL MINE / PENITENT
A penitent, so named because his clothing resembled that of religious orders, rids the air of explosive gas by setting fire to it. A dangerous task, that often ended unhappily

Percy H Fawcett, British explorer
PERCY H FAWCETT British explorer who disappeared while exploring the Matto Grosso of Brazil

WW1 - Zeppelin over the UK illuminated by searchlights
" Zepp!" WW1 - Zeppelin over the UK illuminated by searchlights Date: circa 1917

RAF Poster, Back Them Up! WW2
RAF Poster, Back Them Up!, showing a raid by Hudson planes of the Coastal Command on German shipping at Aalesund, Norway, during the Second World War, in which eleven ships were hit. 1941

First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY)
A woman cyclist first aid scout of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), riding along in her distinctive uniform

Don t Waste Bread Wwi
Poster advising the public to eat less bread, and save two thick slices a day to defeat the U-boats during WWI. Thats a dangerous way to cut bread!

Fox hunter is thrown and falls on his head
A fox hunter is thrown when his horse refuses a fence, and he lands on his head in the next field

Siberian death defier and Aviator baffling John Clempert
Undated coloured poster for Siberian death defier and Aviator baffling John Clempert featuring illustrations of his tricks and performances. HPF/5B/18

To the Public Danger
Humorous scene by Lawson Wood (1878-1957) showing policemen chasing a gentleman in a futuristic flying machine along a main road. Satire on flying which was in infancy

Balaena mysticetus, bowhead whale

Watching Cricket at The Oval, From a Gasometer
A test match between England and New Zealand at The Oval, Kennington. The spectators in the foreground have scaled a nearby gasometer. Date: 1931

Fisting the Mainsail by Arthur Briscoe
Sailing clinging on to a ships mast to fix the mainsail. Date: 1931

Stunt woman rides through flames on motorbike
Sue, 23, one of a team of stunt women, rides her motorbike through a twenty-foot long tunnel of burning hay bales

Scream Line by Cecil Rigby
The Driver: One gets a thrill out of speeding like this. Don t you feel glad to be alive? Her Friend: Glad is not the word. I m amazed

Tank abandoned in a field, end of WWI
A tank abandoned in a field during the First World War, with a notice attached to it written in French saying, among other things, that it is forbidden to go inside. circa 1921

The Modern Boy front cover - Nelson polar bear attack
Front cover of The Modern Boy featuring an illustration showing Horatio Nelson when young fighting off an attack from a polar bear when his ship was frozen in ice in the Arctic. Date: 1932

Florida Tourist Postcard - Waiting Alligators
Florida Tourist Postcard - Alligators awaiting the descent of a boy from a coconut palm tree, up which he has escaped

LCC-LFB Fireman in his fire kit with new cork helmet
A London fireman in his fire kit, including the new style compressed cork helmet with its LFB crest, which replaced the traditional brass helmets used since the days of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade

Turkish booby trap near Gaza, Palestine, WW1
A Turkish booby trap, made to look inviting by the presence of food and drink, near Gaza, Palestine during the First World War. Date: September 1917

Llest Colliery explosion, Glamorgan, South Wales
A group of men and boys waiting for news of miners trapped underground following an explosion at Llest (Lluest) Colliery, Pontyrhyl, near Bridgend, Glamorgan, South Wales

Arrested by an undercover police officer
An undercover female police officer springs her Honey Trap on an unsuspecting criminal, who goes from a jolly evening with a fetching lady to staring down the barrel of a revolver!

Severn Tunnel Diver
The brave diver Alexander Lambert descending the shaft into the flooded tunnel. In Fleuss diving gear, he closed the headwall door and prevented further flooding

Athletic Sports at Grasmere - The Guides Race
The Guides Race at Grasmere showing the plucky runners rounding the flag on Silver Howe - a particularly precarious part of the course. The winner was R. Lancaster who won the race four times in all

Concepts / Angels
A Guardian Angel watches over a child as she crosses a dangerous bridge

Blitz in London -- Union Road, Rotherhithe, WW2
Blitz in London -- a large unexploded parachute bomb lying on a pile of timber at Union Road, Rotherhithe, SE London. Date: 1940s

The Last Word by William Heath Robinson
A motorcyclist, engrossed in a crossword, fails to notice that he is driving over the edge of a cliff just as he discovers the right answer to one of the clues

Collapsed house in Swedenborg Square, Stepney
Gazing at the ruins of their home, which collapsed soon after they fled - tenants of a house in Stepney. The house was typical of much of old housing in London

Motor racing in the 1950s
Reg Parnells maiden BRM V16 win Goodwood, England, 30th September 1950. Date: 1950

Woman patient, St Marys Hospital, Paddington, London
LFB Special Services trying to help a woman patient at St Marys Hospital, Paddington, London, on 15 April 1959

Collecting Eggs at Flamborough Head
Collecting seagulls eggs at Flamborough Head, Yorkshire

A dangerous firecracker

Turkish Zeibek warriors - Izmir, Turkey. Zeibeks or sometimes Zeybeks were irregular militia and guerilla fighters living in the Aegean Region of the Ottoman Empire. Date: 1901

Iceberg that sank the Titanic
The iceberg that sank RMS Titanic. This photograph was taken by Captain Wood of the SS Etonian on 12 April -- the Titanic struck the iceberg two days later

Wombwells Menagerie at Windsor Castle, 1847
Engraving showing the tents of Wombwells Menagerie in the Great Quadrangle of Windsor Castle during the Windsor Michaelmas Fair, October 1847

Mascaret (tidal bore) of the Seine, Normandy, France
People watching the mascaret (tidal bore) of the River Seine at Caudebec-en-Caux, Normandy, France, which resulted from large spring tides, and caused the loss of many ships

French fishing boat catches octopuses
The crew of a French fishing boat off Cancale, Brittany, find their nets full of hundreds of octopuses which swarm onto the side of their boat, nearly sinking it

Sponge diver loses his footing
Diving for sponges off the Tunisian coast, diver loses a leg to a shark

High Tea above London
A young man defies gravity by perching on a pole on the roof of the new BBC Broadcasting House building and having a truely High Tea! Date: early 1930s

Ignis Fatuus (Colour)
The ignis fatuus, or marsh light, lures the unwary traveller into dangerous marshwaters

Richard III and the sons of Edward IV
Richard III, as Duke of Gloucester, orders the sons of the late King Edward IV be parted from their mother, Elizabeth Woodville. 1480s

Tintagel Castle, Cornwall, on a stormy day with a rough sea and a ship drifting dangerously near to the rocks. The castle ruins can be seen in the top right. Date: circa 1832

Blitz in London -- burnt-out incendiary device, WW2
Blitz in London -- incendiary device which burnt itself out on an asphalt roof. Date: 1940s

In No Mans Land
" In No Mans Land: The Dread Territory Which Belongs to Neither German nor Briton" Royal engineers

Scorchers Progress - The Marble Arch - Errant city cyclist
The Scorchers Progress - The Marble Arch - Errant city cyclist causing havoc aid his fellow road-users, knocking over a man and his dog. An old take on a current issue! Date: 1904

Tiger attempting to reach big game hunter
A Tiger attempts to get at a big game hunter, sat rather precariously on a tree branch

Balloon descending into Bristol Channel
A balloon descending into the water of the Bristol Channel, near Watermouth. The passengers were Sadler and Clayfield, who ascended from Bristol. 24 September 1810

JUSTICE CLEANED UP
Cleaning up British Justice

Laclos / Liaisons / Valmont
Le Vicomte de Valmont uses his mistress, Opera as a writing desk whilst writing to the virtuous Mme. Tourvel, whom he plans to seduce

Futuristic encounter with an octopus
A futuristic encounter with an octopus on the seabed. A man rescues a woman from its clutches

Skeleton of Death in a quack doctor's apothecary shop, wearing an apron mixing poison in a mortar and pestle. The workshop decorated with jars, phials, sieve, surgical saw and syringe

Spain, Madrid. Circo Price: The American shooter Mr. Paine, executing his risky exercises with his wife as assistant. Drawing from life by Daniel Perea. Engraving by Bernardo Rico

Mother of pearl divers attacked by a shark, Tahiti. Date: 1885

Zazel, Royal Aquarium, Westminster, London
Zazel (Rossa Matilda Richter), female acrobatic performer and human cannonball, at the Royal Aquarium, Westminster, London, with verses from Punch magazine. 1877

Agnes Reston (1771-1856), known as The Heroine of Matagorda, wife of Sergeant Reston of the 94th Regiment of Foot

An Incident in the Attack on Bomarsund, Crimean War, 21 June 1854. During the battle a shell landed on board. Charles Davis Lucas threw it back overboard, and it exploded before reaching water

Annotated illustration warning about the dangers of tight laced corsets on the female body. Date: 1906

WW2 - The Motor Launches of E-Boat Alley. (2/2) Date: 1942

Claire Heliot and her performing lions 1903
Claire Heliot (1866 -1953), renowned female lion tamer, photograph showing her in a huge cage caressing and talking to the large cats. Date: 1903

Mince Collop Close, Greenock, Scotland
Mince Collop Close, Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland - undoubtedly " the vilest" of all the " numerous pen closes running from the low streets"

Biblical Tales by John Lawson, Daniel in the Lions Den

The Largest Glacial Kettle at Taylor Falls, Minnesota, USA
The Largest Glacial Kettle (Pot Hole) at Taylor Falls, Minnesota, USA. Date: circa 1930s

The Bolt from the Blue, speeding 1920s couple
A couple in an open top red car, more interested in each other than the road, fail to notice a police officer attempting to stop them for speeding. Date: 1929

British plane crash with dead pilot, WW1
A crashed British plane with the dead pilot lying on the ground during the First World War. German soldiers gather round to examine the wreckage. Date: 1914-1918

WW2 - Dangerous Treasure
A front cover illustration for a WW2 children's story book, Dangerous Treasure, written by Norman Dale. The image shows two boys exploring some ruins with their dog. Date: 1944

Vallee de Heads, Hautes-Pyrenees, France, Le Chaos
Vallee de Heads, Hautes-Pyrenees, Occitanie, France - Le Chaos. A chaos, in geology, is the piling up of blocks forming under the action of erosion in certain types of rocks (sandstone, granite)

Mountain Holiday Capers by Thomas Maybank Date: 1920

William Wallace rescuing a child at Cartland Craigs, Lanarkshire, Scotland Date: 13th century

Lifesavers by Stettman. Date: circa 1908

The Fritzsche brothers - German Bicycle Acrobats from Leuben, Dresden, Germany. Date: circa 1907

A bare-faced steal! A large bear takes a fancy to the contents of a large metal drum on the bacl of a country wagon. Date: 1906

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