Firearms — 20th century — 1940s (set 1 of 2)
About this product
About this collection
This is the first of two sets covering the 1940s firearms holdings, comprising 1,889 objects across 4,087 images in 52 ZIP assets. The 1940s represents the most intensely documented decade of modern firearms development — encompassing weapons from every major combatant nation of the Second World War, including rifles, pistols, sub-machine guns, and specialist infantry arms from the UK, USA, Germany, USSR, Japan, and beyond.
Why it matters
No other decade saw more rapid firearms innovation than the 1940s. This collection captures that technological revolution in detail — from mass-produced utility weapons of wartime production to the precision instruments that shaped post-war firearms design globally. The Royal Armouries holds one of the world's foremost WWII firearms collections, and this dataset makes it accessible for research and creative industries.
Use cases & time to value
- Game & film production design: Accurate period reference for 1940s-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 1940s 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 1940s 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 | 1940s |
| 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
52 assets · 1889 objects · 4087 images · 1940s
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