Images

William Still (1819-1902), the abolitionist known as the "Father of the Underground Railroad" for the records of escaped slaves he kept and later published as The Underground Railroad Records in 1872, c. 1898.

The Reverend William M. Mitchell (c. 1826 to c. 1879), former overseer, abolitionist, and author of The Underground Railroad (1860), the only full-length work published on the subject while slavery was still legal in the USA and efforts to...

Lear Green (c. 1839-1860), a former slave who had herself shipped in a crate from Baltimore, Maryland, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to escape slavery, illustration from The Underground Railroad by William Still, 1872.

Sir Roger Manwood (1525-1592), watercolor, copy by George Perfect Harding, after an unknown artist, early 19th century. National Portrait Gallery, London.

Hero and Leander, watercolor by William Hamilton, 1801. Yale Center for British Art.

Photograph of John Brown (1800-1859), abolitionist and member of the Underground Railroad, famous for his raid on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry in 1859, by Levin C. Handy, c. 1900. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington...

A photograph of Harriet Tubman, former slave and the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad, by Harvey B. Lindsley (1842-1921), c. 1871. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Il Violino Magico, 'the magic violin', featuring violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini on a bed of clouds, being presented with a violin by the devil, lithograph on paper, by James Anthony Minasi, 1831.

A profile bust-length portrait of Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840), Italian violinist and composer, illustration on paper, by Froer, 1838. The British Museum, London.

The Red Army's liberation of Yelnya from Axis occupation during the Battle of Smolensk in 1943 (August) during the Second World War (1939-45).