Stereo Viewers

Six stereo viewers are included in the exhibition so that visitors might get some sense of the remarkable 3-D quality of stereo photographs when seen through viewers common during the nineteenth century. The viewers simulate human eyes in that two images of the same subject are placed side by side (sometimes taken with a camera that has two lenses) as if viewed with two eyes with "nose space" in between. With this device the amazing depth and distance associated with the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone (as well as other western sites) became quite real. Several of the stereographs in the exhibition include Thomas Moran. In one he displays a group of trout he caught in Yellowstone. In another he is sitting on the rim of thre Grand Canyon sketching. Stereographs were inexpensive and widely available during the nineteenth century and thus one of the major ways information (about many subects including the West) was distributed.

The viewers in the exhibition were designed and constructed by Richard Ford and the NGA carpenters. Specifications were provided by Donna Kwederis in the Design and Installation Department. Vintage nineteenth-century viewers were studied at the Library of Congress and another example was borrowed from a private collector for hands-on study by the carpenters. Prismatic lenses were acquired from an electron microscope supply center. The viewers were constructed so that the portion containing the lenses could be adjusted for individual viewing. A different stereo image was installed at each of the six viewing stations within the exhibition.

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