Ian Ference's 3D blog on all things stereographic, from classic scopes & stereoviews to historical context & modern analysis
In this installment of Sunday Travels, we take a look at Delft, The Hague, and Leiden - all in the areas around last week's subject, Rotterdam. These views prove to be far more superior, as they spend less time buying into stereotypes, and more time actually capturing their subjects.
In this installment of Sunday Travels, we take a look at Rotterdam, the second-largest city in The Netherlands, through century-old American eyes. We see some gorgeous scenes - and some dubious editorial influence on the part of Keystone View Company.
A Brief Introduction to "Sunday Travels" This series on The Netherlands is the first in an ongoing weekly series that will focus on various travel stereoviews. My wife has "encouraged" me to thin out the boxes upon boxes I have lying about. Boxes of stereoscopic treasures which happen to be cluttering up our microscopic smallish …
Continue reading "Sunday Travels #1: The Netherlands (General Views)"
The Germans were late to bring tanks to the Great War; while the Allies built over 5,000, the Germans built a mere 20. This essay examines the history of those 20 A7V-class tanks, and takes a closer, stereoscopic look at two of them.
A month-long French offensive known as the Second Battle of Verdun is the subject of this 10-slide series put out by the SDV division of LSU. Featuring scenes from the recaptured regions surrounding Esnes, the series really portrays the devastation caused by 4 million shells impacting a region localized around a few miles of space.
Bad puns aside, LSU really screwed the pooch on a 45x107mm glass plate stereoview - not only did they print the image horizontally reversed, but they managed to rotate the right-hand frame of the stereo pair by 180º. In this post, we explore the printing process that must have been employed by LSU in making an extremely goofy glass plate.
On 1 April 1915, an MoS-3 piloted by Sergeant Jean Navarre took to the skies - where it encountered a German Albatros B.II. Some sharpshooting by the observer, Lieutenant Jean Robert, brought down the biplane - leading to the capture of the craft and its occupants, and the first victory for the MS 12 Escadrille, and medals for Navarre and Robert.
Sometimes, whilst one is sorting through a newly acquired collection, a new slide or card proves just captivating - and one winds up just admiring it through their favorite stereoscope for minutes on end. This was one from my latest acquisition which had this effect on me.
While much is made of Pittsburgh's once-thriving steel industry, the importance of the city's glass industry cannot be understated - in 1900, a single Steel City firm produced 60% of the nation's plate glass. Take a peek inside the PPG facility in Tarentum, PA in 5 fantastic stereoviews from U&U!
Excerpt from rear of card: "This man has a clown dog. Clown dogs are very smart. They are trained to do many tricks. Most clown dogs like to be with the circus even though they do have to work hard."