People today recognize emojis, smileys, and memes, but did you know that visual communication has always been a part of our culture? The earliest humans painted images on cave walls, and religious stories have been depicted in temple and church murals for thousands of years. When literacy was a privilege of the few, images offered a window into the world and its events.

Before the invention of the camera, images were painted or drawn by hand. Hand-made pictures did not document reality in the same way photographs do. However, they helped people understand world events and left a trace of them for future generations.

This paper theater diorama by German artist and engraver Martin Engelbrecht, dating from 1730, depicts a battle from the Great Northern War. When placed in sequence, the hand-colored engraved sheets form a three-dimensional image. The image is not realistic, even though it represents an actual battle.

What do you think the scene looks like, and how does it portray war? How does the diorama image differ from photographs taken on battlefields in later times?