Eight images of old glass slides of the Alexander Park’s Arsenal Pavilion are presented in the digital collections of the University of Michigan Library, now widely accessible online. The slides are stored at the Cincinnati Museum Center.

The pride of Russian tsars, the imperial arms collection was placed in the Arsenal Pavilion in 1834. It was captured in nineteenth-century watercolours by Aloïse Gustave Rockstuhl and in two series of photographs.

One series was taken in 1858. The other one, which is now in Cincinnati, was taken in 1870 by Louis Favre. The Parisian photographer was a master of stereoscopy, a technique that created the illusion of three-dimensional depth by combining stereoscopic two-dimensional images with the help of a stereoscope.

Favre was especially fond of making stereoscopic slides of interiors. He made 12 glass slides with the interior views of the Arsenal, such as the Vestibule, the First Floor Hall, the Albanian Room, the Main Staircase, and the Hall of Knights on the second floor.

The high-definition images allow us to see small details in the exhibits and decorations—something we wish the Museum could have been able to do during the pavilion’s restoration several years ago.