In an era dominated by images, typically photographs and videos, our culture tends still to think of images as illustrating ideas developed first in verbal language. In that biased model, images communicate out established concepts as accurately as possible, and also as effectively as possible through persuasive aesthetics. While aesthetic choices give us insights in how visual language serves communications in their native societies, more importantly, these culturally tuned visualizations prompt us to also consider how they provide a crucial mechanism for thinking. One only has to look to fields today that use visual language to think through their ideas, such as chemistry visualizing molecular structures, biology working through genomes visually, and epidemiologists thinking through pandemics through mappings. Visual Thinking will look historically, to consider the Palaeolithic drawings as zoological studies, Neolithic and early settlements’ earth works as studies in astronomy, Classical world works as philosophical studies, religious institutions’ material creations as theological examinations, Renaissance and Baroque works as scientific learning, and the role of diverse imaging technologies as core to numerous fields’ conceptual developments. As we examine visual works from diverse eras, we consider how they work as complements to verbal and mathematical expression, typically providing unique avenues of thinking impossible in these other linguistic systems.