The icons collection contained within WorldViews is based upon data from the European Icons project; a cooperative endeavour involving the Georg Eckert Institute and the history department of the Technische Universität Braunschweig.

The project employed standardised parameters to capture examples of how images are reproduced in European textbooks. The focus lay on particularly frequently reproduced photographs, paintings and graphics. Researchers recorded which books used the images and whether the images are used on the cover, as a visual introduction to a chapter or even as marginal illustrations. They also noted whether the images are colour, black and white or have been cropped. In addition the project details whether images used on pages of textbooks are integrated into the narrative of the text or used as source material for exercises, for example.