Rural Collection

Backyard carnival, 1800s
Children putting on a circus in the backyarrd, 1800s. Hand-colored halftone reproduction of a 19th-century illustration

Road from ancient Athens to Eleusis
Temple of Aphrodite (left) on the road from Eleusis to Athens, ancient Greece. Hand-colored engraving of a 19th-century illustration

Feudal lord instructing peasant workers
Peasants receiving their lords orders before going to work, 1400s. Hand-colored 19th-century woodcut reproduction of a manuscript miniature illustration

Colonial classroom in New England, 1600s
Early schoolroom in colonial New England. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Dutch skaters on the Zuider Zee, 1800s
Skaters enjoying a winter Sunday on the Zuider Zee, Dutch island of Marken, 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Confederate soldier romancing a young woman, 1800s
Confederate soldier declaring his love for a young woman, 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Victorian era picnic
Families having a summer picnic, England, 1870s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Plowing rice paddies with water buffalo
Using water buffalo to plow rice paddies in China. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Dutch canal and tow-path, 1800s
Dog-cart with fresh vegetables and people towing a barge along a Dutch canal, 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Medieval rose garden
Garden with roses enclosed by a wattle fence, from Boccacios " Cento Norelle, " 1490. Hand-colored woodcut reproductioin of a 15th century illustration

GEUR2A-00139
Young Dutch woman gathering cabbages in a basket, 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th century illustration

AGRI2A-00064
Picking apples, a farm scene near Prides Bridge, Maine, 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Garden irrigation in the 1500s
Garden water pumped through beds via intersecting channels, formal bed design of 1571. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

HUSG2A-00045
Freed slaves wedding dance in a cabin, US South, 1870s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Washboard for scrubbing laundry in the 1800s
Woman reenactor doing laundry with a washboard, living history demonstration, Shiloh National Military Park, Tennessee. Digital photograph

Reading lesson in a Pennsylvania classroom, 1700s
School reading lesson in colonial Pennsylvania. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century Howard Pyle illustration

African ivory trade, 1800s
Ivory trader in an African village, 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

A crowded Boston skating pond, 1800s
A skating scene in Boston, Massachusetts, 1850s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

HREC2A-00020
Skating on a pond in winter, 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Manhattan Island in the late 1700s
New York City, viewed from upper Manhattan Island, late 1700s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

School board interviewing a teacher, 1800s
Prospective teacher interviewed by a rural school board, 1870s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Summer holiday celebration in an American village, 1800s
Country people enjoying an outdoor gathering, dancing to a makeshift band, 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Boys playing marbles, 1800s
Boys playing a game of marbles in a small town, early 1900s. Hand-colored halftone reproduction of an illustration

Rural courtship, early 1900s
Young couple seated by a brook, early 1900s. Hand-colored halftone reproduction of an illustration

Game of mumblety-peg, 1800s
Boys playing mumblety-peg in the grass, 1800s. Hand-colored halftone reproduction of a 19th-century illustration

Puerto Rican family and their hut, 1890s
Native houses in rural Puerto Rico, 1890s. Hand-colored halftone reproduction of a photograph

Family storyteller
Old woman telling folklore to young girls in a cottage kitchen, England. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Ice-skating on the Schuylkill River, 1800s
Skating party on the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia, circa 1880. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Colonial boy learning to read at home
Grandmother teaching a child to read in colonial America. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Vermont cheese factory, 1800s
Dairy farmers bringing milk to a Vermont cheese factory, 1870s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Reading lesson in a 19th-century classroom
Boys reading aloud in a schoolroom, 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Students in a one-room school, 1800s
Young orator in a village public school, 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Students reciting in a one-room school, 1800s
Pupils reciting poetry in a one-room school, 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Chinese farmers planting rice
Transplanting and irrigating rice in China. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Russian prisoners forced to work in Siberia, 1880s
Russian convicts returning at night from the mines in Siberia, 1880s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Starving peasants begging in Russia, 1890s
Russian peasants near St. Petersburg begging soldiers for bread, 1890s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Jewish market-goers, Poland, 1800s
Polish Jews traveling to market near the Russian border, circa 1880. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Medieval milking and churning
Peasants milking cows and a goat, and churning butter, 1100s. Hand-colored 19th-century woodcut reproduction of a medieval illustration

Georgia Cracker family tending their cookpot, 1890s
Cracker women cooking outside their poor, rural cabin in Georgia, late 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Country life in medieval Europe
Country life in France in the late Middle Ages. Hand-colored 19th-century woodcut reproduction of a 1517 edition of Virgil published in Lyons

Formal garden of the late Middle Ages
Spring work in a European formal garden with raised beds, about 1590. Hand-colored woodcut reproduction of a 16th-century illustration

Canadian farm on the frontier, 1800s
Cattle and barns of a Canadian homestead about 1850. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Medieval manor and fields
Arrangement of manor lands and a farming village in the late Middle Ages. Hand-colored 19th-century woodcut reproduction of an earlier illustration

Wedding of former slaves in the South, 1870s
Freed African-American couple getting married in a cabin during Reconstruction. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Funeral of a former black slave, Reconstruction Era
Negro funeral in Virginia, 1870s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

Before and after views of Kumasi, Ghana, as a British protectorate, 1890s
British view of how the Ashanti will live after English occupation, 1890s. Hand-colored halftone reproduction of a 19th-century illustration

African slaves in Uganda, 1800s
Native slaves carrying fuel and cutting rice in East Africa, 1860s. Hand-colored woodcut from Spekes Journal

New Hampshire village, 1800s
Village of New Boston, New Hampshire, in the 1800s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration

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