A Brief Introduction to Stereographs

Stereographs, derived from the Greek work for solid, did exactly as its name suggests, presenting 2d photography as 3d solid scenes. Just as our eyes see things from two different angles that are processed into a single image with spatial depth and dimension, so two does a stereograph card. In a way, this effect is so heightened as to produce an “appearance of reality which cheats the senses with its seeming truth,” allowing the viewer to feel part of the scene.

Originally these stereographs were produced as daguerrotypes on copper and ambrotypes on glass but once photographic paper was invented, the cards were then printed and placed on cardstock. Stereographs first become popular in 1851 when they received praise by Queen Victoria during England’s Great Exhibition. By the late 1850’s America had caught on as well, thanks to doctor and writer Oliver Wendell Holmes, who coined the name “stereograph” and built a simple hand held viewer for the cards.

By the turn of the 20th century, almost every home had a stereoscope. The popularity of these images was equivalent to that of television and ruled popular culture until they were gradually displaced by movies and radio in the late 1920s. They even went as far to be used for education and held in libraries, public and private in the thousands in neat boxes on shelves or in specially designed cabinets. Dozens of companies marketed their collections of travel, entertainment, and historic photography, with larger companies like Underwood & Underwood producing more than seven million stereographs a year. Much like postcards, stereographs enabled mass “virtual” tourism and could serve as mementoes of travel, or even substitutes for it.

In 1938, Robert Taft declared that stereographs provided, “a sense of reality that no other form of picture can remotely equal.” 

 

  1. Holzapfel, Richard Neitzel. 1992. "STEREOGRAPHS AND STEREOTYPES: A 1904 VIEW OF MORMONISM." Journal Of Mormon History 18, no. 2: 155-176. America: History & Life, EBSCOhost (accessed April 30, 2015).
  2. Lisa Spiro, A Brief History of Stereographs and Stereoscopes. OpenStax CNX. October 30, 2006 http://cnx.org/contents/b3739453-beb2-4bbc-a743-3eb2bdbd2c37@5.
  3. MENDELSON, ANDREW L., and CAROLYN KITCH. 2011. "Creating a Photographic Record of World War I." Journalism History 37, no. 3: 142-150. Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed April 30, 2015).
  4. Lisa Spiro, Egypt through the Stereoscope: Stereography and Virtual Travel. OpenStax CNX. December 21, 2007 http://cnx.org/contents/68ff50bb-3d3c-428d-a1d6-7b44b691eaa9@4.

 

 

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A Brief Introduction to Stereographs