Technologies that allowed you to experience these steoreoscopic images:

1440 - Printing Press / Johannesburg Gutenberg 

1445 - Etching / Daniel Hopfer

1502 - Camera Obscura described by Leonardo Da Vinci 

1796 - Lithography / Allis Senefelder 

1806 - Camera Lucida /William Hyde Wollaston

1826 or 1827 - Heliography / Niepce

1834 - Photogenic Drawing / Fox Talbot

June 1838 - Stereoscopic vision / Wheatstone

August 19th, 1839 - Photography / Daguerre

1849 = Illustrated Postcard / Theodore Hook

1841 - Callotype / Fox Talbot

1842 - Cianotype

1843 - Science document using photography / Anna Atkins

1844 - First Photography book / Fox Talbot

1849 - Stereoscope / Brewster

1844 - Telegraph message / Samuel Morse

1850 - Albumen / Louis-Desire Blanquart-Evrard

1850 - Wet Colodium / Frederick Scott Archer

1851 - New York Times first publication

1852 - Ambrotype / James Ambrose Cutting

1853 - First Photo-Journalist / Carol Szathmari

1854 - Carta de Visite / A.A. Disderi

1856 - Colotype / Alphonse Poitevin 

1858 - Photo etching/ Fox Talbot 

1859 - The American Stereoscope / Oliver Wendell Homes

1871 - Gelatin Silver Print /Peter Mawdsley

1873 - Platinum Print / William Willis

1874 - Color Colotype / Joseph Albert 

1876 - Long-distance phone call /Alexander Graham Bell

1878 Consecutive Series of photos / Eadweard Muybridge 

1877 - Phonograph / Thomas Edison

1882 - Gelatin Silver Chloride Prints

1888 - Kodak Camera / George Eastman

1880 - Perforated Celluloid Film / George Eastman

1892 - Movie Camera / Thomas Edison

1894 - Motion Picture Film / Lumiere Brothers

1895 - Radio Signal Transmission / Guglielmo Marconi 

1900 - Photographic Postcards

1904 - First newspaper photo illustrated  

1924 - Leica camera / Oskar Barnack

1927 - Television/ Philo Farnsworth

1929 - Rolleiflex Medium Format Twin Reflex 

1935 - Kodachrome

1935 - Photograph sent via telegraph

1936 - First publication of Life Magazine

1937 - Polaroid / Edwin H. Land

1953 - First Color 3D movie / Andre De Toth

1957 - Drum Scanner / Russel A. Kirch  

1959 - Nikon F

1963 - K-7 Tape

1976 - VHS

1977 - Apple II computer / Steve Wozniak

1979 - Walkman

1980 - CD player

1983 - Internet / Tim Berners-Lee

1985 - Commercial VR Goggles / Jaron Lanier

1987 - Photoshop

1989 - Digital Single-Lens-reflex / Steven Sasson

2004 - Facebook

2005 - Youtube

2007 - iPhone

2010 - Instagram

2012 - Kodak filed for bankrupcy

2014 - Google Cardboard

2019 - Google Cardboard relases as open source

 

About this project

This is a homage to the technique of Stereoscopic Photography that was prevalent from 1850’s to 1930’s. Using The Robert N. Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views that is part of the Digital Collection at the New York Public Library (NYPL), I am trying to bring attention to this photographic method by focusing on the history of a particular company that produced stereoscopic photographs in the state of New Jersey.

Images were chosen from The Miriam and Ira D. Wallace Division of Art, Prints and Photographs at New York Public Library (NYPL). This division houses the Robert N. Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views described as followed: “The Dennis Collection's total size of more than 72,000 stereoscopic views and its international scope make it one of the largest and most diversely representative holdings of its kind in the world.” 

Creating a narrative became mandatory to allow an intimate interaction with NYPL’s Digital Collection and not overwhelm users with its 72.000 items. I wanted to identify a local stereoscopic photography producer in New Jersey and identify images included in NYPL’s Digital Collection.

Usage of the NYPL database PIC - Photographer’s identity catalog “an experimental interface to a collection of biographical data describing photographers, studios, manufacturers, and others involved in the production of photographic images” was of unprecedented value in the identification and selection of one specific photographic company dedicated to stereography in the State of New Jersey.

Inserting a technological element to this project by pairing cellphone technology and google cardboard, I tried to tie past technologies to the future ones interlaced in our digital era. It is my way of acknoledging the discoveries in science that allowed us to create the virtual environments we utilize seamlessly today. 

As I conclude this exploration I realize the small but otherwise relevant impact of highlighting a small section of images belonging to a cultural archive.

~ Jennifer Cabral

Bibliography

Baldwin, G., & Jürgens Martin C. (2009). Looking at photographs: a guide to technical terms. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.

Bajac, Q. (2002). The invention of photography. New York: Harry N. Abrams.

Darrah, W. C. (n.d.). Stereo Views, A History of Stereographs in America and Their Collection. (Gettysburg? Pa., C1964).

Edwards, S. (2006). Photography: a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Heil, D. (2017). The art of stereography rediscovering vintage three-dimensional images. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.

NYPL Digital Library Collections. Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/robert-n-dennis-collection-of-stereoscopic-views#/?tab=about&scroll=13

Paolo Parmeggiani. (2016) From grand tour to virtual tour: Italy through the stereoscope in 1900. Visual Studies 31:3, pages 231-247. 

Saretzky, G. D. (2004). Nineteenth-Century New Jersey Photographers. New Jersey History, No.03. Retrieved from https://jerseyhistory.org/fall-winter-2004-no-3/

Thompson, C. (2017, October 1). Stereographs Were the Original Virtual Reality. Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/sterographs-original-virtual-reality-180964771/

Map: PIC - Photographers' Identities Catalog. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://pic.nypl.org/map/?address.AddressTypeID=*&address.CountryID=*&bbox=*&Nationality=*&gender.TermID=*&process.TermID=*&role.TermID=*&format.TermID=*&biography.TermID=*&collection.TermID=2028165&DisplayName=(Stereoscope~4)&Date=*&mode=2#7965


Other writings on Photography by Jennifer Cabral