Before rubber, people erased pencil marks with wax tablets and ink on parchment with rough stones such as pumice. Crustless bread was also used, and in Meiji-era Japan bread erasers were so common that students sometimes ate them. In 1770 the English instrument maker Edward Nairne reportedly began selling a rubber eraser, which he said he discovered by accident when he picked up rubber instead of breadcrumbs. Joseph Priestley described it that year in a footnote, noting it was sold opposite the Royal Exchange. Raw rubber was perishable, a problem solved when Charles Goodyear discovered vulcanization in 1839, which made rubber durable and turned erasers into everyday objects. Hymen Lipman of Philadelphia received the first patent for attaching an eraser to a pencil in 1858.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.