Minnesota in 3D: A Look Back in Time: With Built-in Stereoscope Viewer - Your Glasses to the Past!

by Voyageur Press (Editor)

Our Stereoscope books will look like a long-forgotten photo album discovered in Grandma’s attic, which opens up to display a lost world come to life through 3-D photography. Each book will include a brief, colorful history of stereoscope photography, which started in the 1850s offering people their first photographic views of the world and remained popular until the Great Depression of the 1930s. This was the television or internet of the time, and millions of viewers and photos were sold by traveling door-to-door salesmen. 45 images will be reproduced, along with their reverse side including a detailed historical caption on the subject.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Monica]

A unique view of Minnesota’s 19th and 20th century life. 3D views along with interesting descriptions of life at that time through the eyes of non-native peoples.

[Tracy]

This book was a fun way to learn about the history of Minnesota by viewing pictures of the 1860s - 1930s through the lens of a Stereoscope Viewer.

The book begins with a short history of Stereoscopy and how photographers created the stereoviews by taking an initial photograph then moving their camera slightly to a new position to snap the second image. These images were often on sale at tourist attractions as souvenirs or sold by traveling salesmen.

Then you would look through the images with a Stereoscope Viewer with dual lenses spaced about 2 1/2 inches apart. To see the stereo image, you simply let your eyes relax, looking above or below the images. Then slowly, move your eyes to the center of the two images, and they will reappear like magic in 3D.

All the pictures were interesting but my favorite images were of the the potato farming, ice harvesting, the derailed locomotive of 1875 and a picture of three girls wading in the water below the Minnehaha Falls.