Alma-Tadema first travelled to Italy on his honeymoon in 1864 when he visited Pompeii as well as other archaeological sites. As well as his own sketches from his Italian travels, Alma-Tadema owned a large collection of drawings, watercolours, prints and photographs of architecture and of archaeological sites which he used for his paintings of classical subjects. In 1915 this collection, and his extensive library of architectural and archaelogical publications, known as 'The Alma-Tadema Library', was purchased for the Museum from Alma-Tadema's estate by the Alma-Tadema Memorial Committee with the agreement of Alma-Tadema's daughters. In 1946, a reassessment of space in the National Art Library required for Alma-Tadema's books, most of which were duplicates of NAL stock, resulted in The Alma-Tadema Library being offered to the University of Birmingham where they are now housed in the Heslop Library. His collection may have included photographs of a couch found at Pompeii in 1868 which might have been the source for the legs and inlaid decoration on Alma-Tadema's studio couch.