On the 101st anniversary of the Armistice, we take a look at 101 unique stereoscopic 3D photos - taken by amateurs, and not sold commercially.
One-shot #32: Fast Day-A Horrible Intrusion (A Victorian Answer to Iron Maiden)
After attending an Iron Maiden concert last night, I was inspired to dig back into my archives and find this morality play in a single 3D genre image - in which a monk, having broken his fast, is visited by a demon and a spirit - which, coming back around, seems like it could very much be the subject of an Iron Maiden song!
One-shot #30: London Zoo Penguins, by Sunbeam Tours Ltd.
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!
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.
3D Photos of Chicago’s Century of Progress World’s Fair – Part 1
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.
Something Happening in Boissise-la-Bertrand, 1911
With most sets of stereographic images, you can get a sense of what's going on from the captions, action, provenance - all sorts of things. Here, I'm more or less at a loss - but the stereoviews are pretty darn cool!
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.
Amateur set – Ambulances from Champagne 1915 & Saint-Mesmes 1916 (Marne)
An amateur set containing 7 views from the Great War: 3 of an ambulance convoy leaving to pick up the wounded of Champagne, 3 of a convoy at Saint-Mesmes, and one of soldiers camped in a small village (probably the latter).
Exposition Internationale Paris 1937
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.
“My Shelter at 36th Artillery Regiment”, Verdun, 1918
4 "digital prints" from negatives of life in the camp of the 36th Artillery Regiment stationed in Saint Airy Forest at Verdun in January 1918 show snowbound soldiers near one's shelter - as well as a peek into the shelter itself!