In 1830s, real estate agents used Cosmorama gallery to give wealthy 'virtual walkthrough' of fancy mansions; here's how technology worked

Decades ago, rich homebuyers viewed properties through a certain lens. In the 1830s, London estate agents used a technology called the cosmorama to give wealthy buyers a form of “virtual walkthrough” of mansions and country estates. A new study published in the journal Early Popular Visual Culture found evidence that the technology was being used for commercial real estate listings as early as 1838.