A century of satire, wit and irreverence

Satirical, irreverent and often incendiary cartoons that have inflamed – and in some cases changed the course of – political debate in Britain over the past century are about to reach a new audience.

From anti-union images that nearly brought the printing presses of London's Evening Standard to a grinding halt, to caricatures of Harold Macmillan as an ageing muscle man and John Major as a feeble hero in underpants, thousands of images that newspaper readers encountered over their breakfast cereals are to be put online.

Created by the country's most acclaimed cartoonists since 1903, some of the illustrations have remained unseen for decades. Now, the largest collection of British social and political cartoons, catalogued by the British Cartoon Archive, will become available on the internet from Wednesday.

More than 120,000 images from the early 20th century until the present, created by the likes of Ralph Steadman, Martin Rowson and Steve Bell, highlight the changing landscape of the country. At times of impending political crisis, these works have created controversy among politicians and editors.

Nicholas Hiley, the head of the British Cartoon Archive, said the online material was taken from a collection which began in 1973 at the University of Kent. It brought together cartoons from 85,000 newspaper cuttings, many of which had lain in dusty boxes, "undervalued by newspapers".

The archive encompasses cartoons that mercilessly pilloried the governments and leaders of their day. Some, Dr Hiley said, had caused severe consternation among editors while others had nearly brought down the papers in question.

The first cartoonist employed by a national paper was William Haselden, who was commissioned in 1903 by the Daily Mirror to produce daily observations of couples and families in a daring comment on social mores.

Cartoonists such as David Low at the Evening Standard stirred public opinion during the Second World War with cartoons such as "Very Well, Alone", which showed a solitary British soldier shaking his fist at Nazi planes overhead. These images have, over the years, inspired pastiches by cartoonists who sought to present a more cynical view of war. The acclaimed Daily Express cartoonist Carl Giles, whose sketches, original cartoons and letters from the end of the Second World War until his death in 1995 will be exhibited at the Cartoon Museum in London from Wednesday, will also feature online.

Some of the century's most inflammatory images include the Daily Mirror cartoonist Philip Zec's comment on wasting petrol in 1942, which so outraged Churchill that a parliamentary discussion ensued on closing down the newspaper. An image by Raymond (Jak) Jackson ridiculing electrical union members as "bone-headed throwbacks", which he called "homo-electrical sapiens Britannicus", led to protests by union members operating the Evening Standard's presses, who said they would only resume work if the paper published a letter of apology next to the cartoon.

Newspaper folklore has it that a Gerald Scarfe cartoon featuring Ronald Reagan as Mickey Mouse holding a gun was hanging in the office of the then Sunday Times editor Harold Evans when it caught the disapproving eye of the paper's owner, Rupert Murdoch, who is alleged to have suggested that "we will have to get rid of the pinko artist who drew poor old Ronnie."

To view the cartoons, from Wednesday 5 November, go to www.cartoons.ac.uk