Here are more than 60 eyewitness accounts of notable historical events, such as the Battle of Thermopylae, the Black Death of the 1340s, The Great Fire of London in 1666, the 1793 Execution of Louis XVI, The Death of Vice Admiral Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, The American Civil War (1861-1865) and the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. But there are also snapshots of more ordinary life - no less memorable for all that - including working conditions during the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s and early 1800s, views of slaves and their owners, Pau Gauguin (1848-1903; one of the leading French painters of the Postimpressionist period), who choose a bride on Tahiti, and the 1910 arrest and death of Dr. Crippen. It is a fascinatingly unique and absorbing collection, bringing the past alive as only direct memories like these can do.