Jonathan Barnes was a prominent geologist in the Manchester Geological Society who donated his extensive rock, mineral, and fossil collections. His early photographs mostly depict eruptions of Mount Vesuvius between 1906 and 1910, including images showing the destructive 1906 eruption that killed 100 people. This eruption was one of Vesuvius' most powerful, ejecting ash 13,000 meters high and forming a new 500-meter deep crater at the volcano's summit through prolonged eruptive activity until 1913.