This painting shows the harbour busy with ships of all sizes and descriptions in the middle of the 18th Century. This would have been just a few years before the British would seize the colonies of New France to the south.

A painting of St. John's from the earlier years of the 19th Century. At the time this was painted, St. John's already had a population of over 10,000, and this would continue to grow through the 19th Century.

A squadron of Royal Navy warships, possibly the North Atlantic Squadron, at anchor in St. John's harbour. The short smokestacks between the sails indicate that these ships were built in that brief transitory phase between the age of sail, and the wholesale adoption of steam power for warships.

A photo taken from Signal Hill shows several dozen ships of all sizes and classes moored in the southwest corner of St. John's harbour, at Bowrings Cove.

On this street are some of the mercantile and manufacturing businesses that helped service the people of St. John's and the many fishermen who came to the anchorage at Bowrings Cove. The streets are decidedly muddy, and the side of the Moyer Company building appears splattered with mud.

A small bunch of 'newsies', that is newspaper boys, peer curiously at the camera in front of the Parker & Monrose Ltd. store on Water Street.

A view of the city showing the utter devastation caused by the Great Fire of 1892. The fire broke out in a stable and rapidly consumed nearly all of St. John's, leaving 11,000 homeless. The fire caused widespread misery and devastated St. John's economy for years to come as the recovery was slow and painful. This view shows Devon Rowin the foreground.

Teachers from across Newfoundland have gathered in front of the Colonial Building for a photo taken during St. John's first Teachers' Convention.

Marconi and his assistants struggling to get kits flying over Signal Hill. The brilliant Italian physicist and inventor was using the kites to get better signal for his wireless telegraph, successfully receiving the first trans-Atlantic radio message from Cornwall, England. The achievement was one of the most important events of the 20th Century.

Two men, one of them identified as H.D. Reid, have driven their touring car up to Cabot Tower and are posing for a photo. This was likely one of the first cars to be seen in St. John's.

A number of schooners are navigating the Narrows in this photo taken from just above sea level.

The Victoria Hall (or United Business Hall) on Gower Street seen during wintertime.

What appears to be a visit to St. John's by a squadron of the Royal Navy. The ship in the foreground appears to be a Diadem Class heavy cruiser. These were build in the 1890s, the pre-Dreadnought era, and therefore bristled with guns of a variety of calibres, but none of them very big. Their role was to project British power over vast distances to the far flung parts of the Empire.

The SS Susu coming into the Narrows with bunting flying.

A crowd has gathered to witness the unveiling of Newfoundland's National War Memorial after the First World War. Newfoundland suffered catastrophic losses during the war, especially during the attack on Beaumont Hamel on July 1, 1916. The colony's small population lost such a large share of their young men killed and maimed that it would take decades to recover, if they ever truly did.

A group of men and women pose for a photo on the steps of the Colonial Building in 1930.

A freighter has run aground on the shoals right beneath Fort Amherst. As she flounders, a number of other ships are coming alongside to assist if they can and take off the crew. The one at left appears to be the SS Newfoundland or a ship in its class. The sailors are fortunate that this is occurring during daytime in relatively calm seas.

The Colonial Building, seat of Newfoundland's colonial and then provincial government from 1850 to 1959. It has been decorated for the occasion of King George V's Silver Jubilee in 1935, marking his 25th year on the throne. He would die the next year.

The ship SS Newfoundland steaming out of St. John's port sometime before 1940. After her launch in 1925 she served as a mail ship running between Liverpool and Boston with stops in St. John's and Halifax. During the Second World War she helped ferry wounded soldiers between Britain and Canada, until in September 1943 she was redesignated a hospital ship and sent to support the Allied landings in Italy. Despite the prominent Red Cross markings, while at anchor the ship was attacked by Luftwaffe air-launched radio-guided bombs (the first anti-ship missiles in history) and sunk with the loss of a dozen lives.