Archaeology and Tourism in the Early 20th Century: Pompeii through a Photographic Archive

Summary

Since its rediscovery in 1748, Pompeii has remained a destination for travelers and tourists from around the globe. Originally, a tourist destination during the Grand Tour, mainly in the 17th-18th centuries, Pompeii attracted the educated elite. In the course of the 19th century, the site was transformed into an open-air museum and became accessible to a broader group of visitors seeking an authentic experience. This presentation offers a glimpse at a tourist’s experience in the early 1900s through a private archive of 32 original photographs. This collection of images can provide significant information on the history of archaeological excavation and tourism in Pompeii at the turn of the 20th century. GIS’s Network Analysis is used to create a visualization of a route throughout Pompeii based on the locations and monuments captured in the photographs. These images can be correlated with excavation histories to ascertain which unearthed features were observable to visitors and those that were inaccessible – an issue that is of continuing relevance to the present day. Furthermore, souvenirs acquired during the visit suggest that tangible objects played a significant role in the quest of tourists to capture the experience and memory of the site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21280