Stereoscope Collection By Usage

While advertising finds its way to most stereoscopes, these 3D viewers were developed for the sole purpose of marketing a single product or multiple products. The advertising might be on the viewer itself and rarely on the media it comes with — such is the case with the small Neue Photographische (NPG) viewers. Or the advertising is only on the media, not the viewer — as is the case with the Corte-Scope. Or there’s advertising on both the viewer and the media, as with the Stere-o-card. And then there are some that mix it up a bit, sometimes branding the viewer, sometimes not.

In any case, these viewers in their original form, were designed to advertise.

Most 3D content can be considered educational to some extent. This section specifically calls out vintage viewers that were used in schools (e.g., Educa, Vivascope), were designed for medical study & use (e.g., Ritter Dental) or its media has more descriptive text — not just show & tell images with titles.

There’s definitely no shortage of vintage 3D images of nude and partially-nude women for all kinds of 3D viewers. However, we haven’t come across many vintage stereoscopes that were specifically designed and packaged for the purpose of erotica — probably because it’s a subject matter that was already meant to be kept on the down-low and out of sight. Here’s what’s in our collection.

Exposition / World’s Fairs

Some 3D viewers, like Tru-Vue and View-Master, had their big debut at World’s Fairs. That’s not surprising since innovation is a main attraction of World’s Fairs. Both of those viewers went on to live long lives after their World’s Fair debut and covered many other subjects. In this section, we try to highlight vintage viewers that were specially packaged and sold to cover a World’s Fair or International Exposition.

Many vintage viewers came packaged with stereoviews or were intended for the sole purpose of getting people to buy mass-produced stereoviews on all kinds of topics. When stereo cameras became more widely available and affordable, people began shooting and printing their own personal 3D images. This created a market for personal use stereo viewers. Some of them were included or sold separately as accessories to specific stereo cameras. Many of them were Realist format.

Some people are under the impression that all 3D viewers were toys. We hope our website illustrates how much of a myth that is. But, of course, many 3D viewers were designed especially for children. The viewer size and material, the interocular distance, the packaging, and the media subjects were all for the purpose of attracting and entertaining kids. Even some brands not originally designed exclusively for children — like Tru-Vue and View-Master — eventually had specific models geared towards children and were likely to only be found in the toy section of a department store. For View-Master, this shift could be considered as having started with the Model G and the move to plastic. However, we like to think of the transformation starting with the Model L and all the character-face viewers based on that model. With Tru-Vue, the shift happened after they were sold to Sawyer’s and changed their media from filmstrips to cards.

These vintage viewers were designed, packaged, and sold specifically as documentation (or propaganda) for a war or military conflict.