“SKYLIGHTS INTO INFINITY”
(TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHS). Victorian Photograph Collection of Stereoscopic Cards. New York: Underwood & Underwood, circa 1900. Ten vintage stereoscopic cards (each measures 3-1/2 by 7 inches), printed captions on verso. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $450.
Collection of ten Victorian stereoscopic cards, circa 1900, each card with two vintage mounted albumen prints, with views of travel that feature images of the White House, a baptism in the River Jordan, Russia’s Peterhof Palace and more, issued by the leading firm of Underwood & Underwood.
The rise of three-dimensional photography in the 19th century "was the most important development in visual mass culture before the coming of the cinema." To Baudelaire the stereoscope offered "skylights into infinity" and Oliver Wendell Holmes praised it "as a valuable educational and democratic medium and called for the creation of stereo libraries" (Lenman, 599). This memorable collection of ten Victorian stereoscopic cards, each with two mounted albumen prints, answers that wish for travel by offering "a photographic viewing experience… like being there and seeing the scene with one's own eye" (Zeller, 23). Featured herein are images of: America's White House within an elegantly landscaped garden; Russia's majestic Peterhof Palace; a card titled "Cotton is King" that shows African American field workers under a blazing sun; with views of a baptism in the smooth waters of the River Jordan, of villagers in a hamlet in the Alps, and another of a lush banana grove in the Hawaiian Islands. The collection concludes with a series of scenes from a Victorian wedding, of elegant women at a luncheon, and the image of a child asleep with its kitten. Cards published by Underwood and Underwood, which was founded in 1880 and soon became "one of the leading names in the 'second age' of commercial stereoscopy" (Lenman, 601): some cards with copyright notices of "Strohmeyer & Wyman." Each card with two mounted albumen prints (3 by 3 inches). Card rectos with publishers' imprints at margins and captions below the images, versos with printed captions in English and four other languages.
Cards fresh with light scattered foxing minimally affecting several prints. A wonderful series in near-fine condition.