In this third and final part of a series on VistaScreen's stereoviews featuring the Bertram Mills Circus, we look at the inferior (but scarcer) "Night" version of Series 46, which replaced the "Day" version at some point in time. We also look at possible times these photos were taken, the performers who appear in them, and the problems with shooting on slow glass plates in the dark.
Raumbild Paris 1937: A Tour of the Exposition – Pavilions and Fireworks
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.
30 Boxes of Glass Plates from Belgium: Marie-NoĆ«lle’s Collection, Intro & 2 Boxes
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.
Dudley Zoo: Where animals roam the grounds of a Royalist castle ruined during the First English Civil War
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!
Charles Bierstadt: A Great Stereographer’s Journeys Beyond Niagara & Yosemite
While he is primarily known for his views of Niagara Falls, and secondarily known for his expeditions to Yosemite, Charles "Chas" Bierstadt got around - most of the views featured here are at neither of his favored locations. Chas got around!
Tru-Vue Advertising: The Academy of the Visitation at Villa de Chantal, Series I
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!
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.
Mystery Box #1: Winter in Germany, mid-1930s
In an attempt to start sorting through some of the piles of random amateur glass stereoviews in my collection, I picked one at random. It appears to be a family at wintertime, somewhere in Germany, in the early- or mid-1930s.
“La DĆ©livrance”, part of the Nantes Memorial to the War Dead, in 1927
"La DƩlivrance", 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.