Victoria's Rusty Knickers

Octopus from Conradi Gesneri’s Historiae Animalium - published in 1551

‘The Fossil Elk’ - Engraving published by W. H. Lizars in Edinburgh - 1830s

via graphicsfairy

Sylvain Dornon, a stiltwalking shepherd from Landes in southern France, set out on a journey from Paris to Moscow on the 12th of March 1891. His fifty-eight day walk constituted a genuine curiosity to the Russians, to whom this sort of locomotion was unknown.
via wikipedia

grumble-grumble:

Deer and Rattlesnake - Harper’s New Monthly Magazine - 1855 by Thomas Shahan 3 on Flickr.

(via greatplates)

The Prince of Wales Mounting his Elephant in Jeypore - from the Illustrated London News - 1876

Portrait of a Rat - Engraving published in London in the late 18oos

Roussette d’Edwards, Rhinolophe unifer, Nyctère de la Thébaïde, Noctilion bec-de lievre and Vespertilion oreillard - Engraving published in 1853

‘Wych-Street’, from the London Illustrated News - January 1, 1870

Sea Monsters - Illustration from Ulisse Aldrovandi ‘s ‘Monstrorum Historia’ - 1642

Street Musicians from Hell, Part 4 - Man grinding a Barrel Organ. Wood Engraving after L. Knaus.

via Wellcome Images

‘Mr. Dante’s Successor falls off a fast-moving Train - Overhead a ghostly night-wind ploughed through the tree-tops and wailed and sobbed like a lost spirit.’

Engraving published in 1892

Mars Attacks!

Depiction of an hydrocephalic Skull (caused by an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid), published in Joseph Vimont’s Traité de Phrénologie Humaine - 1832

‘Demolition of Hungerford Market - View looking toward The Strand’,

(Charing Cross railway station was built on the site and opened in 1864)

Engraving published in the Illustrated London News - 1860s

Illustration from De Humana Physiognomonia - published in 1586