Picturing Stories represents a dataset of 27,889 illustrations drawn from 2,827 historical children’s books that were manually annotated using a citizen science initiative on Zooniverse involving 6,981 volunteers. The number of annotations totals 731,489. Illustrations are drawn from books published between 1728 and 1932 and sourced from the Internet Archive’s Children’s Library: https://archive.org/details/iacl. Over 91% of books are English-language books, with the next most represented language being French at just under 5%. Based on an analysis of available regional information, we estimate that books originate equally from Britain and North America.
Illustrations were annotated by 3+ annotators across the nine tasks listed below. We retain only annotations with responses from at least three annotators per illustration. Tied votes are preserved and labeled as partial_disagreement, while non-overlapping responses are retained and labeled disagreement. Each task column (T0–T7) includes a corresponding agreement column indicating the level of annotator consensus (majority, partial_disagreement, or disagreement).
Image files available upon request.
Task / Category / Question / Possible Answers
T0 / Illustration / Is there an illustration on this page? / Yes, No
T1 / Characters / Who are the characters on the page? Check all that apply. / Man, Woman, Girl, Boy, Animal, Animate Object (e.g., a teddy bear or spoon who talks), Mythical / Imaginary Being, Other, None
T2 / Setting / Where is the scene set? / Indoors, Outdoors, Both / Ambiguous
T3 / Objects / What are the main objects in the scene? Check all that apply. / Nature (trees, flowers, lakes), Architecture (buildings, walls, furniture), Vehicles (cars, boats, planes), Toys, Reading and Art (books, musical instruments, paintings), Household items and tools (pots, pans, hammers, sticks), Other, None
T4 / Intensity / How emotionally intense is this scene? What is the energy like? / 1 - Very calm (still, contemplative, restful), 2 - Mildly calm, 3 - Neutral, 4 - Mildly intense, 5 - Very intense (frantic, tense, active)
T5 / Actions / Choose an entity type in the image. What behaviors do you see? / sitting, standing, walking, talking, looking, pointing, gesturing, holding hands or embracing (someone), being embraced, holding (something not someone), giving, playing, working, eating/drinking, reading, listening, crying, sleeping, moving actively (running, jumping, dancing, climbing, flying, etc), animal noise, violent action
T6 / Family / Does the image appear to depict a family? For there to be a family there must be adults AND children present who appear to be related based on their actions or dress. / Yes / No
T7 / Family / What are the family members doing in this image? Check all that apply for all family members. / Embracing / Physical closeness; Comforting / Caregiving; Playing; Recreational Activity (Walking, Picnic, Outing); Teaching / Learning; Communicating / Pointing; Reading; Eating; Household Work; Outdoor Labor; Co-present but not interacting; I cannot tell from the image
T8 / Captions / Please write a caption for this illustration. Make sure to include key characters, objects, actions, and aspects of the setting. Write 1-2 full sentences and be as objective as possible. / "Three small children rest on hay: a boy holding a rake stands between a seated girl holding a flower and another boy lying down." || "Three children play in the field, one is laying, one is sitting and holding a flower, the third is standing and holding a stick."