From mad monk Rasputin's steely blue-eyed stare to a young Queen Victoria in white

Remarkable photos showing some of the most famous figures in modern history have been revealed in colour for the first time.

The images, dating from 1850 to 1960, have been compiled into a new book called The Colour of Time: A New History of the World.

Among the figures to feature in the photoseries are Britain's second longest-reigning monarch Queen Victoria, Russian mystic Rasputin and Lilliuokalani, the last Queen of Hawaii.

Also pictured in the collection are some of the most famous venues of the modern age, including the Egyptian Court inside the Crystal Palace and the notorious Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

The authors of the book say that by showing the images in colour they hope to give people 'a new way of looking at the world during a time of monumental change'. 

MailOnline