Reminiscing with Stereoscopes

When I was little

my grandparents 
had an old stereoscope  

and a stack of the photo cards
that they had collected. 

It was 

"not a toy"

my sweet grandmother would tell us 

and on certain occasions
"when we were good"

(and our grubby little hands were clean)
we were allowed to sit
and look at the cards.

:)

I LOVED looking at the cards!

It was so much fun to see

a photograph come alive

behind the magnifying lens

of the viewer.

For those of you who aren't familiar
with the stereoscope,
this magnifying viewer has two lens 
and a separator between the eyes.
Cards with two photographs slide into a
holder on an adjustable arm.
The images on the card appear
to be the same but they are not.
Each image is taken from a slightly
different angle.
The eyes see the photo and the brain
puts the two images together creating a 3-D effect.

Religious scenes of the life of Jesus.

Victorians could visit countries around the world, states from coast to coast,  scenes of romance and humor, religious stories from the Bible, and landscapes and snapshots
from every corner of the globe
without ever leaving their parlor armchair!

 These 3-D viewers were popular 
from the 1830's through the 1930's.
In 1861, Oliver Wendell Holmes designed the most
popular version of the viewer,
you can read more about that here.

Unfortunately,
I am not sure 
whatever became of my grandparents 
stereoscopic viewer
and its card decks. 
:(

Scenes from American national parks.

When I started having children
I thought it would be fun to own
a couple stereoscopic viewers

to share the same tradition with my kids.
(I wanted them to experience the simplicity of entertainment
during the period of life before TV and Gameboys!)

Old scenes of the earlier days in Chicago.

If you are from the Midwest,
you may have been to the Wisconsin Dells.
The Dells are now known 
as a vacation spot
specializing in themed water parks,
but the Dells were originally made famous 
by images taken of 
the gorgeous sandstone cliffs 
 along the Wisconsin River
made known by stereoscopic cards.

A man named H.H. Bennett,
 was a photographer 
who specialized in landscapes,
 and he began capturing 
the gorgeous sandstone rock formations
along a seven mile stretch 
of the Wisconsin River in 1868. 

He took his images and had them  
inserted into the widely popular card decks
 that were sold in catalogs with the viewers.

Up until that time, 
the Dells were virtually unknown
but once the cards got out, tens of thousands
of visitors wanted to visit 
the beautiful glacier-made 
landscapes they had seen on the cards. 
As a result, hotels and accommodations 
started popping up and a train line 
was built to bring the
visitors to the area.

Photo courtesy of the H.H. Bennett collection.

My family and I visited this area 
about 9 or 10 years ago 
and when we stopped by the museum
and realized that the booming tourist spot
was put on the map 
by stereoscopic cards 
well, that was just the best story ever!

Ever since then, 
I have been trying to get these 
Wisconsin Dells cards and have found just a few. 
Hard to come by.

Photo by H.H. Bennett

Sentimental collecting.

:)

I found an entire boxed set of Rome and the Vatican City and the arts of the area. Gorgeous images.

Do you have a stereoscope? 
Have you been to the Dells?

Butt wait --- there's MORE. These two cards showing babies
who seem to have lost their diapers always used to CRACK my two kids up!