The song of Hiawatha, 19th C

Oh my little friend, the squirrel.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", “The Song of Hiawatha”, and “Evangeline”. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's “The Divine Comedy”.

Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, which was then a part of Massachusetts. He studied at Bowdoin College. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and, later, at Harvard College. His first major poetry collections were “Voices ofthe Night” (1839) and “Ballads and Other Poems” (1841). Longfellow retired from teaching in 1854, to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a former headquarters of George Washington. 

His first wife Mary Potter died in 1835, after a miscarriage. His second wife Frances Appleton died in 1861, after sustaining burns when her dress caught fire. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time and focused on his translation. He died in 1882.

Longfellow wrote many lyric poems known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. He has been criticized, however, for imitating European styles and writing specifically for the masses.

Above&Below illustrations drawn by Harrison Fisher, from The song of Hiawatha, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Indianapolis, 1906. Found the book in a reasonable quality scan at -as usual this year 2015- archive.org (link provided here). :: Really hard to make a selection of only 4 and finally I selected colour examples but B&W drawings are simply amazing, pure motion catched...

And he loved the lonely maiden

With both hands his face he covered

Painted many shapes and figures

The underground world, 19th C

Interior of an iron mine.
From The underground world, by Thomas Wallace Knox, Hartford, 1877. Original title is a real description (not too much to say: "The underground world : a mirror of life below the surface, with vivid descriptions of the hidden works of nature and art, comprising incidents and adventures beyond the light of day")

Thomas Wallace Knox (1835 - 1896) was a journalist, author, and world traveler, known primarily for his work as a New York Herald correspondent during the American Civil War. As an author, Knox wrote over 45 books, including a popular series of travel adventure books for boys.

Knox was well known for his written attacks on William Tecumseh Sherman and his Union soldiers, which reintroduced into the public debate the issue of Sherman's sanity. His work was controversial as he published important information pertaining to the Vicksburg Campaign. Knox was acquitted on spy charges but found guilty of disobeying orders

Falling in of a mine. Amazing illustrations like the trapper boy and "children picking up", old women at work... incredible work conditions on the industrial revolution

Sections of an English coal mine.

Miners descending a shaft.
From The underground world, by Thomas Wallace Knox, Hartford, 1877.

This book can be purchased via amazon, link provided, BIO text is mostly copy pasted from wikipedia (couldn't find more info about this Book but complete title provides a very good approach). I do recommend visiting archive.org where is scan is hosted, link here

The Liber chronicarum, 15th C

The Liber chronicarum, (image source from provided ebay link) a universal history compiled from older and contemporary sources by the Nuremberg doctor, humanist, and bibliophile Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514), is one of the most densely illustrated and technically advanced works of early printing. It contains 1809 woodcuts produced from 645 blocks. 

The Nuremberg entrepreneur Sebald Schreyer and his brother-in-law, Sebastian Kammermeister, financed the production of the book. Michael Wolgemut and his son-in-law Wilhelm Pleydenwurff executed the illustrations in around 1490, a time when their workshop was at its artistic peak and the young Albrecht Dürer was just completing his apprenticeship there. 

The views of towns, some authentic, some invented or copied from older models, are of both artistic and topographical interest. This brilliantly colored copy, owned by Schedel, contains valuable additional matter, such as Erhard Etzlaub's map of the road to Rome. Along with the rest of Schedel's library, the book became part of the library of Johann Jacob Fugger, which in 1571 came into the possession of Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria.

This Chronicle is probably the most sophisticated printed book published before the year 1500 because of its use of different graphic layouts that integrate text and image in more varied ways than anything that had previously been attempted. 

Thevast majority of the images above were obtained from a ebay shop (digital facsimil for 14 USD, shipping worlwide)

There are also images at Biblioteca Digital de Obras Raras e Especiais atUniversidade de São Paulo, Brazil.

Wikimedia has a lot of illustrations in three categories: one, two, three; a few of which also appear above.

MorseLibrary at Beloit College in Wisconsin have an extensive website devoted to'Liber Chronicarum' 

Others...