Firearms — 20th century — 1910s
About this product
About this collection
This collection covers 1,623 firearms from the 1910s, delivered across 3,343 images in 73 ZIP assets. The First World War drove unprecedented firearms innovation — the collection spans bolt-action rifles that defined trench warfare, the first generation of light machine guns, pistols issued to officers on every front, and the experimental automatic weapons that heralded the future of infantry combat. Objects represent all major combatant nations.
Why it matters
The 1910s represents the moment when modern warfare was born, and firearms were at the heart of that transformation. This decade saw the first true automatic pistols enter service, the development of trench warfare-specific weapons, and the first systematic use of machine guns as primary infantry weapons. The Royal Armouries' WWI holdings are among the most significant in any national collection.
Use cases & time to value
- Game & film production design: Accurate period reference for 1910s-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 1910s 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 1910s 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 | 1910s |
| 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
73 assets · 1623 objects · 3343 images · 1910s
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