When in Rome

If you have read any of my earlier blogs, you know that I like to point out the connections between items from different collections housed in the Prints & Photographs Division. Keep reading to see what links a travel poster and a stereograph.

This gorgeous travel poster of Rome by Roger Broders was published in 1921:

Not much is known of Broders. Many of his posters feature a distinct foreground and background and use the object in the foreground, here the Arch of Titus, to frame the object in the background, here the Colosseum.

Compare the poster to this early twentieth-century stereograph that shows the same view of the Colosseum and the Arch of Titus:

The view is not all that these two images have in common. Both include what could be the same gentleman beneath the Arch:

The Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée railway, known as PLM, sent Broders to many of the locations seen in his posters, so he had firsthand knowledge of a number of the scenes he depicted. Perhaps he was in Rome and met the man he placed under the Arch.

Learn More:

• View more stereographs from the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog of the Colosseum.
• Gaze in wonder at early color images of Rome from the Photochrom Collection.
• See the world through travel posters from the Library’s Poster Collection.