BOOK PREVIEW: Victorian America in 3-D
This was first published on MySpace in 2008. I have hopes of finally finishing the book it was written to be part of during this year. The images will be sold at auction in Costa Mesa California in July at the annual convention of the National Stereoscopic Association, and this will be part of the sale catalog as well as the first part of the book.
This is the introduction to my first book, which I will be working on in installments and posting here. At first the illustrations may seem bizarre since there are two seemingly identical images in each one, but they can be merged into a single 3-D image with the aid of a proper viewing device which allows each eye to see only the image directly before it, such as a traditional Holmes-Bates “stereooptican” or “stereo viewer.”
The book will have a small plastic viewer, and they can be bought very inexpensively online.
Victorian America in 3-D
Introduction
In 1837 when Britain’s Queen Victoria ascended the throne while still a teenager, the United States was in its adolescence as well. The Constitution had only been in effect for a little over four decades, and although the generations which had led and fought the Revolution and written and approved the Constitution were gone, and Washington and Hamilton’s Federalist political party along with it, the young and still struggling nation remained mostly loyal to the original principles of maximum individual freedom and minimal government oversight or intrusion. In fact, the reaction to the most recent and often allegedly monarchical Presidency of former General Andrew Jackson had been quite vehement since its beginning in the election of 1828, despite Jackson’s staunch anti-National Bank platform.
It was another few years before a way was found to permanently fix a photographic image, and a few more years after that before a process was made practical to attach a permanent image on glass and inexpensive paper materials. Once those capabilities were in place, and enough enterpreneurs had learned the somewhat complex and dangerous photographic processes, it took only the addition of the understanding of how two photographs, taken by a camera with two lenses about the same lateral distance apart as human eyes, or two photographs made with a camera moved laterally for each image, could, when printed out and affixed to a piece of glass or cardboard, recreate the impression of depth which our two eyes provide for us, thereby rendering a realistic depth of field impression to any photograph!
Stereograph of a bust of young Queen Victoria. Photo by Disderi c.1863
When all this was done, the sense of reality captured by the camera was unique, and could be truly amazing! People were astonished by the sense of depth which could be obtained from a flat image! But the process was rather expensive, so during the 1850s most “stereographs,” as the new double photograph images were called, cost as much as a decent hotel room or a good meal in a fine restaurant.
At first, viewing devices which were required to keep each eye confined to viewing only one image for the three dimension effect to work were quite expensive as well, usually consisting of a finely crafted wooden box with built-in fixed or adjustable lenses designed to view either the paper or glass transparency views.
As a consequence, during the 1850s stereogeraphs remained mainly a luxury for the wealthy. Stereograph demand and production remained fairly low throughout the Civil War of the 1860s, although views made of the war itself proved extremely popular.
Queen Victoria’s Imperial Crown and Regalia. Stereograph by J. Davis Burton of London, c.1863.
The end of the Civil War brought hundreds of thousands of young men home to begin their careers. Some soon made enough money to be able to afford to purchase at least a small number of stereographs themselves. The invention of a relatively inexpensive hand-held viewer by Oliver Wendell Holmes at the end of the war went a long way to make stereograph collecting one of the most popular pastimes among the postwar generation.
Assisting the rise of popularity of the stereograph were regiments of veterans who took up the occupation of local photographer in thousands of towns and cities across the nation. Transportation limitations being what they were in those days, many if not most of these photographers began supplementing their income taking photographic portraits by venturing into the surrounding areas to take stereo pictures of local scenic and manufactured sights, stereograph copies of which were then sold to proud locals.
Other photographers traveled farther afield to popular tourist destinations or the still largely unknown but endlessly fascinating western wilderness, to record the sights and activities of those places and the people in them. Advertising in the new wave of national magazines and newspapers, they were able to sell copies of these images all over the country.
Even serious economic downturns in 1873 and 1893 could not entirely dampen the popularity of the three-dee photograph. But the invention in the 1890s of machinery to reproduce the photographs and fix them to the card stock base much more quickly, plus the development of half tone imaging and improvements in lithography at the turn of the Twentieth century, all combined to finally bring an end to the era of the independent local stereo photographer.
The record these pioneer image-makers left for posterity today constitutes by far the largest single pictorial resource for the modern historian interested in learning about and understanding the culture and setting of the United States of America during the reign of one of the most popular and powerful monarchs in Western history, Queen Victoria of the British Empire. When she finally died in 1901, hers was the longest single reign of any monarch in British history. The era of the independent stereo photographer lasted only three decades of that reign, but the Victorian era’s essences were captured for eternity in countless three-dimensional images which they produced. Students of American history will be forever grateful.
Stereo photograph of a glass ball reflecting the photographer taking the picture with his stereo camera in the Genesee Valley Nurseries of Frost & Co. near Rochester, New York. Photo by Gates & Malette of Watkins, New York c.1870.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS
After some searching, I found one source for cheap plastic stereo viewers. They will cost you $3 or $4 plus some postage, but they can be used to view any 3-D image in the traditional format of those in this series.
Victorian America in 3-D
Chapter 1: Environment
Part 1: Public Buildings
The latter half of the nineteenth century was a time when the natural environment was celebrated in all its forms, even as unprecedented development was transforming the surroundings to improve the quality of life.
The dominace of various types of religion in Americans’ lives tended to encourage a high respect, even adoration of the natural environment as a divine creation intended for human appreciation and use. Christianity especially had long taught that God created the environment for man’s use, and from it would provide all that a faithful follower ever needed.
Although this led to sometimes wasteful misuses, people usually did the best they could to conserve and use resources wisely. This was probably least true in the business environment, where profit tended to take priority in order to achieve a living for the families of those involved. But the overall principle remained that God had intended the environment to be admired and respected as well as transformed and consumed.
Stereographs, themselves a product of the Victorian age, left a photographic legacy of the environment which Victorian Americans adored, as well as the edifices they constructed for their use. The romantic turn of the Victorian era’s spirit also drew Americans into nature on hikes, picnics and other outings, gave special meaning to the picturesque remnants of earlier years, and inspired new styles.
Most Americans’ whole philosophy of life derived from religious faith, and in the early days especially physical resources were limited by the harsh demands of the natural environment. Some early churches doubled as town meeting buildings and thus did not always look like our idea of a proper church. This is the “Old Church” in Hingham Massachusetts south of Boston, “Society formed in 1635, present meeting house (c.1880) erected in 1681.” On the back is a list of the names of the seven pastors who conducted services in this building during the 242 years between 1635 and 1877. Below that is the motto of the Parish Seal: “Let the work of our fathers stand.” Published and probably also photographed by G.W. Tirrell the 2nd of East Weymouth and Nantasket Beach, Mass.
The only identification on this quaint view is “M.E. Church, Northfield, Minn.” It dates to the 1870s.
Education was a priority in a society which required not only economic independence but personal virtue and political responsibility. Public elementary education was established in most states by 1850, and high schools, more controversial because they took older children from the family’s workforce, arose in increasing numbers. Evidence of the extensive nature of education in the United States in the nineteenth century is obvious in this view of the “normal” or teacher’s college in Winona Minnesota c.1872. Photo by Hoard & Tenney of Winona.
Girard College in Philadelphia was one of the oldest in the nation. Aspirations to a “classical” education, with plenty of emphasis on Ancient Greek and Roman culture, was plainly evident in the design of this Parthenon-like building. Photo by John Moran of Philadelphia, c.1865.
Municipal buildings were a source of great local pride. They could be made particularly impressive due to the low wages of semi-skilled and skilled workers before unionization came along. This is the Dover, New Hampshire city hall about 1880. Photo by E.T. Brigham.
Wealthy men often donated money for the construction of public buildings. On the back of this view of the Athenaeum in St. Johnsbury, Vermont is this later handwritten note: Horace Fairbanks, President of Fairbanks & Co. from 1864 to 1888, built and donated the Athenaeum (library and art gallery) in 1871. This view is by D.A. Clifford of St. Johnsbury about the time Fairbanks donated the Athenaeum.
Organizations proliferated in America’s first century, as the French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville noted on his extensive nine month tour of the young nation in 1831. Many conducted charitable and community service activities. One which became notorious for its political machinations was New York City’s Tammany Club, run by the homely and corpulent “Boss” Tweed. This c.1871 view of Tammany Hall bears the retail label of H. Ropes & Co. of 78 Nassau Street on the back.
Perhaps the most famous public building in the nation was the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., although it had only been completed after the end of the Civil War. This c.1872 view up Pennsylvania Avenue by Bell & Brother of Washington shows that even streets in the center of the capital city itself were as yet unpaved, although trolley tracks had been installed.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing had only been operating for a short time when this photo by J.F. Jarvis of Washington was taken. This building housed the paper money manufactory for the national currency which had replaced private bank paper money during the Civil War.
The Smithsonian Institute museums had already been going strong for several decades since an Englishman had donated money for the unusual main buildings. It is still one of the most famous museums in the world. This oversize “cabinet” stereograph was unusual in that it was made by a visiting photographer, Ranald Douglas, who described himself as an “Outdoor Photographer” located in Lowell, Massachusetts. It dates to around 1880.
All of the above © 2008 RGD
To be continued!
Congrats (((Bob!))) I will be back over the weekend to read this. It looks very interesting!