Victorian Reality

When you put on the Meta Quest 2 headset your hand movements in the physical world are tracked so you can interact with 3D objects in an extended reality, without using controllers. What will you discover about a museum object when you pick it up and bring its original purpose – and history – back to life?

In the 1850s, stereoscopic images were created by taking just two photos of an object or scene. Recently, we’ve taken thousands of photos of museum objects from all angles at high resolution to create 3D models that can be rotated, magnified and interacted with.

The stereoscopic viewing devices from the 1850s and 2020s look remarkably alike! Both technological innovations create a perception of depth, but only one will let you interact with virtual twins of objects from the museum’s collection.