Historical pictures would typically show events in Finnish history; for example from The Illustrated Work of Finnish History by Karimo: the Making of a Punt, a Court Session by a Stone Circle et cetera

Historical pictures often depicted some historical place or building; for example from Lehmann’s Pictures of Civilized History: the Roman Forum, a Knight’s Castle et cetera. The main task of a picture in these cases was to depict the building, and people in the picture played a minor part.