The dataset comprises c. 385,237 images identified as ‘Plates’ from the British Library’s Flickr Commons collections, dating between c. 1528 – c. 1900. The images were algorithmically gathered from 49,455 digitised books, equating to 65,227 volumes (25+ million pages), published between c. 1510 – c. 1900; Plates have currently been identified within the date range c. 1528 – c. 1900. The books cover a wide range of subject areas including philosophy, history, poetry and literature. The images are in .JPEG format.