Stereo Realist Viewer

United States, 1950s

The Stereo Realist viewer is perhaps the most popular and most-used stereo viewer. This is probably due to the fact that it’s an accessory to the Stereo Realist camera by the David White Company, the most popular 35mm stereo camera made. There were a few different styles with different color buttons - red, green, white, etc. - but the red button with achromatic (double element) lenses is the easiest to find. Because the red-button Stereo Realist viewer is so common, we never had to intentionally pursue one for our collection since we’d end up acquiring them as part of commercial slide sets, like the Oldsmobile set shown below. However, we did go out of our way to get the white-button viewer with the single element lenses, just because.

Primary Material: Bakelite
Media Format: Mounted film chip
Light Source: Battery-powered
Focus: Adjustable
Interocular: Adjustable