View of the ruin of the basilica in Pompeii Basilica 1880

Roberto Rive made this photograph of the ruins of Pompeii in the mid-19th century using the stereoscope technique. The result is two almost identical images that, when viewed through a special device, create an illusion of depth. Such images satisfied the 19th-century public's hunger for views of faraway places. They speak to the rise of tourism as a mass phenomenon, and the demand for easily portable and reproducible images. Italy, with its Classical past, was a particularly popular destination. The ruins of Pompeii, preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, offered a unique window onto the daily life of the ancient world. We see the basilica's ruined columns and walls, a potent symbol of the passage of time and the fragility of human achievement. Historians use photographs like these to study the ways in which the past was imagined and consumed in the 19th century. Studying the techniques of photography alongside tourist guides and travel accounts, allows us to better understand the cultural context that gave them meaning.