| Sumario: | Upon his return from setting up an astronomical observatory on a mountain on Tenerife, Scottish Astronomer Royal Charles Piazzi Smyth sought a photographic image to help make his Report on the Teneriffe Astronomical Experiment of 1856 more compelling to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty and to circles of professional and amateur astronomers. So he turned to James Nasmyth, a retired Scottish engineer and fellow astronomy enthusiast, to create a plaster model of the volcanic craters on the peak of Tenerife to be photographed and featured as the report's frontispiece. After the circulation of his study in this journal, which secured Smyth's reputation in scientific circles, he took the model and lantern slides of the plaster mountain peak on a popular lecture series. These images were later printed, along with his journey's stereo views, in a book for an audience that wanted a simulated three-dimensional 'armchair tourism' experience of the Tenerife mountain of its own. This article examines this early stereocard project, plaster models, and their scientific veracity as one way scientific ideas gained traction using a mass-friendly visual language.
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