Images of Britain

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Nipper - the dog who made his mark on the music industry

Nipper was a dog from Bristol who served as the model for one of the world's best-known trademarks: the dog-and-gramophone used by electronic recording companies HMV and EMI.

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Harry Beck's Underground map - complexity made clear

Now recognised across the world, the Tube map was originally the brainchild of Underground electrical draughtsman, Harry Beck, who produced this imaginative and beautifully simple design back in 1933.

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Sergeant Pepper album cover - a musical treat in itself

The iconic cover of the Beatles' album Segeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was designed by pop artists Jann Haworth and Peter Blake. The image is well-known for the eclectic and sometimes unexpected range of famous figures pictured alongside the Famous Four; including psychologist Carl Jung, 19th-Century Prime Minister Robert Peel and playwright George Bernard Shaw.

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Art as advertising - Sir John Millais' 'Bubbles'

'Bubbles' (originally titled 'A Child's World') is an 1886 painting by Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir John Everett Millais. It is most famous for being used as an advertisement for Pears' soap over many generations.

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The Endurance in the ice: explorer Shackleon's Antarctic trauma

You're looking at one of the incredible photographs taken by Australian Frank Hurley in 1915 of the ship Endurance, trapped in ice during British explorer Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition. Many more were lost to sea when the ship had to be abandoned.

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The BBC Testcard F - icon of TV history

Test Card F was a picture created by the BBC in the 1960s to support the development of television technology and help deliver a quality screen image on receiving equipment, and to support the calibration of TV sets by manufacturers, owners and installation engineers.

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The Jolly Fisherman - mascot of Skegness

The famous railway poster promoting travel to Skegness as 'SO bracing', also known as The Jolly Fisherman, was created in 1908 by artist John Hassall, born in Kent, on commission to the Great Northern Railway (GNR). It is regarded as one of the most famous holiday advertisements of all time, and is believed to have influenced the success of Skegness in Lincolnshire as a British holiday destination.

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The Monarch of the Glen - a classic image of Scotland

"The Monarch of the Glen" is a very famous painting of a Scottish scene. This regal stag has been so popular over the years that it has been described as 'the ultimate biscuit tin image of Scotland'.

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