Here's What Traveling Through Rome Looked Like in 1890

With photography in its incipient stages, photocrom prints were as close as our ancestors got to postcards. While the images may look like photographs, they are actually ink-based photolithographs. Often featuring subjects appealing to travelers like landscapes or architecture, the prints were either shared with loved ones (like postcards) or hung for display. Below are a set of prints featuring Rome in the late 19th century, produced by the Detroit Publishing Company in Michigan. See the Italian capital as it looked in 1890, with horse-drawn carriages on the cobblestone streets in place of its modern-day tangle of traffic.

The Coliseum with Meta Sudans in the foregound (Library of Congress) The Spanish Steps leading to St. Trinita dei Monti (Library of Congress) The Roman Forum (Library of Congress) A Roman street (Library of Congress) Piazza del Popolo (Library of Congress) Pyramid of Cestius near St. Paul’s Gate (Library of Congress) Piazza Navona (Library of Congress) St. Paul’s Basilica, Interior (Library of Congress) Trevi Fountain (Library of Congress) Elevated view of Rome (Library of Congress)

Piazza di Minerva (Library of Congress)

Library of Congress

Bridge to the Castle of St. Angelo (Library of Congress) Temple of Bosco (Library of Congress) The Arch of Titus (Library of Congress) St. Peter’s Square (Library of Congress)

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