Le Stéréorama, Wood Stereoscope
France, 1910s
We were excited to find this scarce viewer because a few weeks earlier we had come across something we’d never seen: a paper roll of war stereoviews that belonged to a viewer called Le Stéréorama. We only knew of the cardboard Stéréorama and the paper roll definitely didn’t fit that viewer. When we acquired this wooden, tabletop Stéréorama it came with 3 additional rolls of war stereoviews — 48 views on each roll. Fortunately, the viewer has instructions inside the door as they proved very helpful in figuring out how to change the roll. The lead edge of the roll paper is threaded through the slot on the viewer’s spindle to hold it in place and each side of the roll’s spindle is latched into place. This means that to remove it, the whole roll has to be re-wound.
Series B, No. 3
We came across this lone Stéréorama roll out in the wild and have given it a home with its companion rolls and viewer. However, it makes us that much more determined to find the Series B, No. 2 roll. We now have 5 of the rolls, and still, we don’t know much about the sources of the various views on them.
