Photographic History Collection: Stereoviews
notes: label: Description
content: The majority of the Stereoview Collection is composed of approximately 20,000 individual stereocards. In addition there are boxed sets, French tissue, glass, Viewmaster reels, and StereoRealist images. There are a few stereo daguerreotypes. The patent model collection contains patents for viewers, stereographs, albums, and cameras. The apparatus collection contains examples of hand-held and tabletop viewers, cameras and card storage containers. The majority of the views are created by professional photographers and studios, although there are examples of amateur work. There are approximately four hundred makers, publishers and distributors represented in the stereographic collection.
label: Description
content: The cards are organized by maker and within maker by subject. The Watkins Collection (5300+ cards) and the Boni Collection (1000+ cards) are two smaller stereograph collections created by the donors. PHC chose to maintain the individual collections instead of integrating them into the larger collection. The Watkins collection is organized by the donor’s subjects and the Boni Collection is organized by maker and subject.
label: Description
content: Subjects are mostly geographically oriented (travel, cityscape and landscape). Other subjects include: topical humor, African-American subjects, US Geological and Geographic Surveys, Civil War, WWI, military conflicts, views of expositions, interiors of museums, works of art, labor, US presidents, heads of state, and eye-testing kits. Additionally, there are views created by unidentified photographers for private individuals at picnics and other special occasions.
label: Description
content: The most contemporary aspect of the collection is the work of Bruce McKaig. He created his own viewers to view his often, hand-colored stereo images in the 1990s. There are other 3D materials in the collection that do NOT require apparatus such as the Rothstein collection of Xographs and Ives’s screen photographs.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Photographic History
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content: Photography
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: COLL.PHOTOS.000049
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Stereoview Collection