Contextual analysis

Holmes-Bates Stereoscope, courtesy of JSTOR.

Someone living in the United States towards the end of the 19th century, or the beginning of the 20th century, might come across an advertisement from the Keystone View Company. That promotional material, which targeted schools, churches, and individuals, would frame the stereographic experience as entertaining and veracious (Bak). 

The stereoscope and its accompanying cards, which began to be sold by the Keystone View Company in boxsets in the late 1890s, would bring the consumer to iconic or day-in-the-life scenes, in domestic or foreign settings, always to witness unfamiliar but intriguing sights. “[The stereoscope] offered sensory experiences,” writes M.A. Bak, “That its proponents claimed were comparable to physically visiting distant sights and locales” (Bak).

World in Three Dimensions Keystone View Company, courtesy of JSTOR.

Proponents like Rebecca, of The Stereoscopy Blog, who describes the Keystone stereograph cards as educational and humorous. Or, the curators of KeystoneDepth: History in 3D, a University of Washington collection, who discuss the excitement of viewing historical scenes in three dimensions, and lament the damages that stereoscope cards have sustained over the course of history as getting in the way of objective experience. 

But the apparent objectivity of the stereograph, and more generally, the photograph, is misleading. In analysis, it’s important to remember that the “realistic”, trustworthy quality of photographs is a narrative, created and reinforced by the creators of the images (Tagg). 

Because while the images and the narration on stereoscope cards characterized the views as truthful, they enforced a subjective narrative, like the Keystone View Company cards that implicitly reinforced white American assumptions about the cleanliness, independence, and stability of foreign peoples (Bak).

The narration on the backside of each stereoscope card in what was once Harvey E. Lemmen’s collection is united by a pair of common themes; the engaging quality of their writing and their tendency to editorialize. 

A scan of the backside of card T31-star.

(The cards I am specifically referencing— designates T1-star, T26-star, T31-star, T60-star, and T97-star— have been transcribed, and those transcriptions can be found here, in this blog’s appendix.) 

Despite being informational writing, the text on the cards is almost poetic, at times bordering on purple prose. After detailing the dimensions and architecture of Westminster Abbey, the narration quotes Washington Irving. Before dissecting the engine of the Spirit of St. Louis, the narration paints a mythic, monumental image of Charles Lindbergh. 

However, quite frequently (in the six cards documented in the appendix, at least), the pretense of objectivity is dropped, as the narrator runs commentary or makes judgments, whether that be high praise (as in the case of Charles Lindbergh and Westminster Abbey) or blunt criticism, in its discussion of the founders of La Guayra. 

The stereoscope as a device and an institution is, literally, founded on illusory tactics. While tricking the eyes into viewing two flat images as three-dimensional, it leads the viewer to ascribe value to the “experiences” depicted on the card. Coming away from the experience satisfied, enriched.  

However, in reality, the stereoscope flattens a potentially rich and complex subject matter into something that businesses like the Keystone View Company thought would be palatable for schoolchildren and everyday citizens.

Using the telebinoculars to view Harvey E. Lemmen's stereoscope cards is, truly, a secondhand experience. Not only what is seen, but what is felt, what is known, and what is thought about the places and peoples depicted in the cards is dictated by an uncredited writer with limited perspective.

Women mounting stereographic prints in a Keystone View Company manufacturing plant, courtesy of JSTOR.

Bak, Meredith A. (2012). Democracy and discipline: Object lessons and the stereoscope in American education, 1870–1920. Early Popular Visual Culture, 10(2), 147–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2012.664746

Holmes-Bates Stereoscope. (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://jstor.org/stable/community.13902852.

Luo, X., Kong, Y., Lawrence, J., Martin-Brualla, R., & Seitz, S. M. (2020, November). KeystoneDepth: History in 3D. In 2020 International Conference on 3D Vision (3DV) (pp. 463-472). IEEE.

Rebecca. (2021, January 3). Keystone View Company. The Stereoscopy Blog. https://stereoscopy.blog/2021/01/03/keystone-view-company/

Tagg, John. (1988). The democracy of the image. The burden of representation (pp. 34-59). 

Women mounting stereographic prints in a Keystone View Company manufacturing plant. (1910). https://jstor.org/stable/community.13729968

World in Three Dimensions Keystone View Company. (1900s). https://jstor.org/stable/community.13723417