The history of visual material is continually renewed by scholars from other disciplines working in what were once considered to be the margins of art history. Historians of dress, gardens, travel and diplomacy bring into focus the impact of visual experiences that moved Europeans beyond the traditions of their local cultures. In this special issue, four emerging scholars take up ‘cosmopolitan moments’ of cultural exchange as seen in the visual evidence of history. The papers were initially presented as part of an interdisciplinary postgraduate workshop and symposium on Enlightenment Cosmopolitanisms, convened by the Sydney Intellectual History Network at the University of Sydney in 2014.