Firearms — 19th century — 1880s
About this product
About this collection
This collection covers 421 firearms from the 1880s, delivered across 1,003 images in 44 ZIP assets. The 1880s saw the bolt-action magazine rifle emerge as the dominant infantry weapon — the Lebel (1886) was the first smokeless powder military rifle, triggering immediate responses across all major powers. The decade also saw the Maxim machine gun invented and the revolver challenged by early semi-automatic pistol prototypes.
Why it matters
The 1880s is arguably the most important decade in modern firearms development — smokeless powder, magazine rifles, and automatic weapons all emerged within a few years of each other. The Royal Armouries' 421 objects from this decade capture the full breadth of this revolution, from transitional single-shot designs to the cutting-edge repeaters that would define the next 50 years.
Use cases & time to value
- Game & film production design: Accurate period reference for 1880s-era weapons in historical games, film, and television
- AI training data: Large labelled firearms dataset for object-recognition, period-classification, and type-identification models
- Military history research: Primary visual source for comparative study of 1880s firearms technology and design evolution
- Publishing & editorial: Ready-to-license imagery for histories, encyclopaedias, and military reference works
- Museum education: Accessible digital collection for academic and public programming on 1880s arms development
Data schema
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| object_number | string | Royal Armouries catalogue number (XII. prefix + sequence) |
| object_name | string | Standardised object type name as catalogued |
| class | string | XII (Firearms) |
| period | string | 1880s |
| image_filename | string | Original filename as catalogued by the museum |
| image_format | string | tif (archival high-res), jpg (catalogue), or bmp (legacy) |
| width_px | integer | Image width in pixels |
| height_px | integer | Image height in pixels |
| file_size_bytes | integer | Uncompressed file size in bytes |
Collection stats
44 assets · 421 objects · 1003 images · 1880s
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