Ian Ference's blog on all things stereographic, from classic scopes & stereoviews to historical context & modern analysis
The Century of Progress World's Fair - held in Chicago in 1933 and again in 1934 - was among the most successful World's Fairs of all time, actually turning a profit. It was also the launch-pad for Tru Vue's toy-format 3D filmstrip system, which documented the Fair over 8 different filmstrips. This is the first one.
Unlike our previous "Christmas present" from Tru Vue, this 1933 filmstrip is not a creepy, low-budget romp through a garage and then a weird scene in a little girl's darkened living room. Rather, it is a fairly interesting peek into messaging for kids during the Great Depression, with MUCH higher production value.
VistaScreen had the opportunity to create some historically interesting stereoviews when they finally sent one of their photographers out of the United Kingdom - and down to Southern Ireland. Sadly, but predictably, they opted instead to show some rather standard (if well-taken) views of some rather standard tourist destinations in the "rebel county".
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 a first look at this Raumbild album, and the context and subtext surrounding it.
Colombia is a beautiful country that can be visited via Colombian Steamship Lines! This Tru Vue filmstrip features 3D photography of Colombia: the ruins of a fort, passengers disembarking from a steamship, a man selling a monkey, the home of the President of Colombian Steamship Lines, a torture house of the Spanish Inquisition, and more. Steamships!
1933 in the finest borough of the greatest city in America is brought to life, in sepia-toned 3D in a rare strip from Tru Vue. See the Williamsburg Bank Building without neighboring skyscrapers; the first Brooklyn Public Library's original main branch building; an elevated train line through the center of the borough - and more - all in stereo pairs & anaglyphic 3D!
Two glass plate negatives from the 1937 Exposition Internationale in Paris, taken from roughly the same position, give a window into the history of the Expo, as well as some of the underlying tensions that were coming to a boil in advance of the Second World War.
