"More than a recreation of moments in time from Europe that no longer exists, The Last of old Europe captures in these photographs an unchanging quality of humanity. AJP Taylor reminds us that "all things change" but that we recognize ourselves in these faces looking out at us from the past. Coming as it so opportunely did at the eleventh hour of culture about to be overtaken by incredible industrial and technological change, the camera has preserved a record of daily life that the written history of the period could never have a wholly preserved. Though artists of the day recorded the splendor of royal and wealthy patrons, few could afford to devote themselves to as vast a record of the common man. The efforts of these pioneering photographers have immensely enriched historical perspective.