In addition to large-format photographs documenting the massive construction project that created Marseille’s Rue Impériale. Adolphe Terris was commissioned by the city to preserve the memory and the appearance of the districts of Old Marseille that were destined to disappear forever. Along with the narrow streets and time-worn buildings that would fall to the wrecking ball, Terris’s photographs were often populated with the residents whose lives would be equally disrupted. As in Paris, modern improvements in circulation and sanitation came, for many, at the expense of history and customary patterns of daily life.