The College of Arms commissioned a series of 142 modeled and painted panels and shields in connection with the New York World's Fair of 1939, which were presented to the United States at the outbreak of the war. Most eventually went into storage at the Smithsonian until their resurrection in this volume on heraldic art. All are illustrated, described, and put into historical context, and they range in time from Simon de Montfort and "Strongbow" (Richard, Earl of Pembroke), through Cromwell and John Milton, to Cecil Rhodes and Ernest Rutherford.