The idea and practice of getting away, going on vacation, emerged simultaneously with the expansion of railways across Europe and the United States in the 19th century; the American middle-class family vacation didn’t become popular until the 1950s. And yet, there is this idea that the impulse and practice of “getting away from it all” has always been there. The images that come back from friends and family who ventured to other lands feature classic tourist spots—the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Canyon, the Pyramids of Giza, the Tower of Pisa—but they also feature everyday objects—a cup of coffee, a pigeon, bottles on the side of the road—that seem to glow anew in a foreign light.