In the 1920s, change was brewing right here in the USA - by industry barons secretly (or not-so-secretly) in league with Adolf Hitler's Nazi party.
May Day 2020: Berkshire Knitting Mills 1924: The Nazis of Reading, PA, in 3D
One-shot #33 – Fixing up a Nieuport 10 Sesquiplane by A.O. Fasser
Doctor A. O. Fasser took this 3D photo of two men fixing up a tire on a Nieuport 10, most likely in the spring of 1916. Here we take a look at the sesquiplane, before taking a look at the importance of negatives - both in general, and relative to the Fasser Collection.
German A7V Tanks: The “Mephisto” and the “Elfriede”
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.
The Second Battle of Verdun: Scorched Earth Around Esnes-en-Argonne 1917
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.
One-shot #31: La Stéréoscopie Universelle (LSU)’s SDV division really steps in it…
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.
One-shot #29: 1915 Capture of an Albatros B.II by Sgt Navarre and Lt Robert
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.
One-shot #28: Camouflaged English batteries (LSU no. 9198)
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.
“La Délivrance”, part of the Nantes Memorial to the War Dead, in 1927
"La Délivrance", the statue that was at the center of the Nantes Memorial to the War Dead, was also at the center of a lot of controversy. Placed in July of 1927, it was torn down by far-right wing vandals - not to be restored for 91 years, on the Armistice Centenary.
Ruins Tourism and the Ghoul of Soissons
While touring the ruins after the Great War was rather unexceptional, this well-shot amateur set is rather bizarre in that a lone woman is pictured in most of the shots, always with a stolid expression on her face and in a very proper stance. Add in a complete lack of other people, she comes off as rather ghoulish, like a spectre haunting the rubble.
Great War 1914-1918: The Ruins of Reims
An amateur set of contemporary modern ruins photography of Reims, at and around the bombed-then-burned-out Cathedral, and probably taken well before the end of the Great War, shows 12 views from a very talented photographer, documenting the damage to a beautiful city and its centerpiece.