Collection Spotlight: Stereoscope

If you are of a certain age, you might have fond memories of the View-Master. This red toy made by Mattel came with a set of round cards with images on them (mine were dinosaurs); when you inserted the card into the viewer, the images became three-dimensional. So much fun!

These viewfinders mimic a much older object—the stereoscope. An invention of the nineteenth century, the stereoscope plays on our binocular vision to produce an exciting viewing experience. Two images—a left eye and right eye view of the same scene—are printed on a stereograph card, and when viewed through the stereoscope, appear as a single 3D image. The first stereoscope was debuted at the Great Exhibition of 1851, a world’s fair held in London, and quickly became popular on both sides of the Atlantic. Just five years later, more than a half million stereoscopes had been sold.

Stereoscope in the library, Gibson House Museum

It can be difficult for us twenty-first-century denizens to imagine the excitement this viewing opportunity produced—after all, we are inundated by images from near and far. But for Victorian Americans, who had limited access to photography and for whom visual culture was largely the province of the wealthy, it makes sense that this affordable mechanism was so beloved.

Stereographs, Gibson House Museum

Stereoscopes quickly became a common source of entertainment in nineteenth-century homes. Photographers traveled widely to capture images for stereograph cards; landscapes and architectural marvels were particularly popular. For some middle-class Americans, the stereo views were a substitute for travels to famous sites, both in the United States and abroad, and the experience of viewing these places through the stereoscope was an opportunity for both education and armchair travel. And for those folks who could afford a Grand Tour, the stereoscope images became souvenirs and a chance to share and discuss those travels with friends and family back home.

The aspect of depth that the images offered allowed viewers to feel a more personal sense of connection to the places depicted. That was particularly true for the stereographs that showed natural disasters, including the Great Boston Fire of 1872.

By the early twentieth century, the popularity of the stereoscope began to wane with the introduction of motion pictures as a new form of visual entertainment. And yet, there is still something surprisingly appealing and intimate about raising an image to your eyes and seeing it rendered as though you are standing directly in front of it.

- Meghan Gelardi Holmes, Curator

To learn more:

• Dennis Pellerin, "What Did the Victorians See in the Stereoscope?" The Classic (March 4, 2021)
• Stereoscopes: Nineteenth-Century Virtual Reality Devices, New Orleans Museum of Art