History in 3-D: Understanding Stereoviews

Photographs produced as STEREOVIEWS, using two similar images to produce 3-D effects when viewed through a special viewer, were the most popular form of commercial photography from the 1850s through the 1920s. Untold millions of these views were produced for the entertainment and education of the middle classes in America and in Europe. Almost every activity of life throughout the world was recorded in these photographs; celebrities, wars, events, disasters, cities, towns, the wonders of nature, factories, farms, social movements, and aspects of the daily lives of the rich and the poor. Bernard Fishman, director of the Maine State Museum and a former Egyptologist, will present a seminar examining the stereoview phenomenon and what it can tell us about life 150 years ago. He will draw on his vast collection of some 40,000 stereoviews to talk about how we can learn about the past from them, how we can understand what they reveal about life, love, and work in former days, and how those insights can help us understand the lives we are living now. He will also discuss how to collect and preserve these rare views, how to use them for public presentation, and how best to impart the historical lessons that they contain. Paper viewing glasses will be provided free of charge for the portion of the seminar which will show the images in actual 3-D, as they were meant to be seen. We will spend additional time looking at stereoviews in the Vermont Historical Society (VHS) collections, detailing ways in which to manage these collections, and discussing how Vermont may have been represented in stereoviews. Attendees are welcome to bring examples of stereoviews from their collections to share or to learn more about. This workshop is produced in partnership between the Heritage Winooski Mill Museum and VHS. It is offered free of charge and supported in part by Vermont Humanities. We would like to extend our thanks to Dr. George Mutter and Photoarchive3D (www.Photoarchive3D.org) for the technical support which has made this presentation possible.