This depiction of 8th-century Arabic polymath Abu Mūsā Jābir ibn Hayyān, westernized by Europeans as "Geber," comes from chapter 33 of the publication Les vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres grecz, latins et…

First published in 1617, Michael Maier's alchemical emblem book contains a preface on ancient music and the Greek myth of Atalanta and Hippomenes and consists of 50 engraved emblems, each accompanied by a discourse and…

This 17th-century engraving is from Thomas Norton's The Ordinall of Alchimy and was made after a 15th-century illuminated manuscript (now preserved in the British Library). Norton, a practicing alchemist, depicts the…

Forty-three experiments are detailed within this work, including the physical and chemical properties of air proving it has weight along with determining that a vacuum restricts the transmission of sound as well as the…

Engraving of a flea from Schem. 34 of the first edition of Robert Hooke's seminal volume, Micrographia : or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses. With observations and inquiries…

In this pioneering work on microscopy, engraved plates detail the physiology of natural history specimens. Known as the "Father of Microbiology," Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) is considered one of the first…

Engraved plate depicts the components of a pocket microscope with a mirror or speculum used to project light through the specimen. The parts and functionality are explained in detail in chapter IV, entitled "A new…

The full text above and below the image of this print reads, "The First Lecture in Experimental Philosophy. / Engraved for the Universal Magazine, for J. Hinton at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard London.…

This work by Antoine Laurent Lavoisier is widely considered the first of its kind in modern chemical literature. Select digitized content includes front cover, frontismatter, woodcut vignettes, as well as thirteen…

Originally published in Vanity Fair on January 8, 1887, this chromolithograph depicts Louis Pasteur holding two white rabbits.

This engraving shows Dutch mathematician and physicist Jean Henri van Swinden (1746–1823) demonstrating the generation of electricity to the Felix Meritis Society in Amsterdam. The Felix Meritis Society was founded in…

Written originally as a technical manual, this volume provides an historical account of the art and science of fireworks, with sections on materials, the manufacture of unit fireworks and display pieces, aquatic and…

Volume five of five brocade-bound sets of 60 Chinese watercolor paintings. The watercolors show, in chronological order, the process of producing Ramie cloth, a silk-like fabric, in China during the 1820s. The…

This engraving by Alfred William Warren is based on a painting by English watercolor specialist Cornelius Varley. The engraving depicts a design for a general scientific laboratory, with the apparatus numbered.

Michael Faraday (1791-1867) solicits help from James Curtis Booth (1810-1888) in securing permission for Friedrich Wohler (1800-1882) to tour a Manchester factory.

A half-length portrait of Friedrich Wöhler (1800–1882), a German chemist.

Notebook containing 49 pages of laboratory notes taken by Charles F. Chandler in Göttingen as a pupil of Professor Friedrich Wöhler in 1854 and in Berlin as a pupil of Professor Heinrich Rose in 1855. In these pages,…

Translated from the second enlarged and revised German edition by Jane and Caroline Lassell; edited with notes by William Huggins; with numerous woodcuts and colored plates.

From the Preface: "Its object is, on the one…

An etching of a chemist watching over a distillation process. The apparatus being used includes a gas-fueled bunsen burner at far left heating liquids in glass retorts. The products of the distillation are being…

Reproduction portrait print of French chemist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) depicting Pasteur in his laboratory at the rue d'Ulm, surrounded by his experimental apparatus and innovative laboratory glassware developed for…

Interior photograph depicts a man standing next to a laboratory table with a man standing behind the subject holding what appears to be a needle or a medical device. Another man stands behind the subject holding up his…

Frontismatter and plates have been digitized from this volume on poisonous substances. Chromolithographed frontispiece plate illustrates blood spectra. Digitized plates depict various poisonous substances under…

Featured on the back cover of Puck magazine, this cartoon entitled "The Pasteur Boom—High Times for Hydrophobists" mocks those who traveled to France to receive Louis Pasteur's (1822-1895) new vaccine for the rabies…

Trade card for waterproof celluloid collars, cuffs, and shirt bosoms featuring a racially stereotyped depiction of an Asian boy smoking an opium pipe. A celluloid cuff and collar adorn the boy's exaggerated Asian-style…

Trade card for waterproof celluloid collars, cuffs, and shirt bosoms depicts a boy sailing on a cuff, demonstrating their waterproof appeal. Verso includes an advertisement for celluloid products along with advice for…