Gezicht op de Marble Arch te Londen c. 1850 - 1880

This stereograph of the Marble Arch in London was produced by Valentine Blanchard sometime in the mid-19th century. Stereographs like this one were a popular form of entertainment. You could place the card in a special viewer and see a surprisingly realistic 3D image. The Marble Arch itself is a monument loaded with social meaning. Built in the 1820s, it was originally intended as a grand entrance to Buckingham Palace. However, it was moved to its present location at the corner of Hyde Park in 1851 because it was found to be too narrow for royal carriages to pass through. That the arch became obsolete so soon after its creation shows us how quickly London was changing, and how the city’s institutions had to adapt. We can learn so much about the past by taking a closer look at images like this, but to do it well you need to do your research. For example, you might want to study old maps or newspaper articles from the time. These sources can help us understand not just what things looked like, but what they meant to the people who lived then.