Genevieve Ference's 3D blog on all things stereographic, from classic scopes & stereoviews to historical context & modern analysis
Being delighted to receive this bizarrely-tall thin paper stereoview a few days prior, I failed at the time to realize that it was a more expensive stereo pair than any of the other 1,000+ that I had received during "Christmas in July". And it was totally worth it, because penguins are the best!
Probably the best repository for stereoscopic photography of the Exposition Internationale Paris 1937 is a book published late in the year - with stereoviews by notorious Nazi photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, and some text that just drips with propaganda. This post takes us a little further into the Exhibition, with 15 more views, and a contemplation on the nature of beautifully achieved propagandistic works.
One of the parcels which arrived on "Christmas in July" two days ago contained a wooden box - with about 500 amateur glass stereoviews contained within. Today, we take a look at two boxes at random, in an attempt to determine what this acquisition consists of, who might have taken it, and whether it is, indeed, a cohesive collection, as opposed to a random pile of amateur glass.
In existing since the first decade after the Norman Conquest, Dudley Castle was destroyed by the Parliamentary siege during the First English Civil War. Now the grounds are a zoo - and are fully open to the public. The Levellers, Diggers, and Ranters would be proud!
The post-war Raumbild-Verlag Siegfried Brandmüller series "Greece" is primarily focused on ruins, as so many Grecian stereoviews seem to be. Still, they come alive wonderfully in this short series.
It's not surprising that the newly-formed Tru-Vue company of Rock Island, Illinois decided to try their hand in the advertising market. Nor is it surprising that they chose a local institution for one of their first advertising filmstrips. What is surprising is that this early subject was a girls' Catholic school run by the Salesian Sisters - and that the stereo photography is actually pretty darn good, considering!
Looking for a ridiculous series of stereoscopic photographs on one subject that were probably all taken in the course of an hour and possibly all given captions in the span of two minutes? Then look no further, my friends.
Miraculously, the Chicago Avenue Pumping Station survived the great fire of 1875 due to a German immigrant fireman. Happily, local stereographic photo outfit Lovejoy & Foster produced a fantastic, painterly view of the great steam-powered pumping station within 4 years later.
In additional to his usual fare - fancy estates, towns, zoos, and so on - VistaScreen's photographer Stanley Long dabbled in artistic figure studies. Largely unadvertised for obvious reasons - this was 1950s Britain after all - few of these sets are floating around. Here's the first in the Miss Continentale series.
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!