One of the parlor entertainments of the mid to late eighteen hundreds was that of stereoscope viewing. The ‘viewer’ had two lenses with a sort of hood around them to keep light out. It had a hand grip on the bottom and a sliding, adjustable rack to hold a double photograph. That is, it had two almost identical images…each with a slightly different angle… set side by side.
The photographs took on a 3D quality when used in the viewer. The stereoscopic cards were made of a stiff cardboard with the photographs printed on them. Many were identified…Paris, Cairo, Japan, Niagara Falls. Some cards had silly scenes that were staged to make people laugh. Sitting around the parlor, for instance, people took turns passing around the cards and the viewers and imagined far off adventures or situations.
Normally, items in the Museums are not to be touched by the public. However, one of the stereoscopes at the May-Stringer Museum is dedicated to a hands-on experience for guests. There are 20 or so stereoscopic cards that may be chosen to place in the viewer to feel what it was like to see the world as one may have seen it in 1900. It’s hard to imagine what this simple device was like to someone before movies, television, camera phones and reels were invented.
