stereographs

Using stereoscopes, the entertainment-seeking public of the 19th century immersed themselves in these 3D photographs called stereographs in a manner akin to how we now view movies, video games or cellphone screens.

The New York Public Library: New Perspectives on Old Perspectives: How an Art Project Helped the NYPL Put Its 3D Stereograph Collection in Your Hands The New York Public Library 2012

"Using stereoscopes, the entertainment-seeking public of the 19th century immersed themselves in these 3D photographs called stereographs in a manner akin to how we now view movies, video games or cellphone screens."

Are 19th Century Stereographs The Modern-Day GIF? The Huffington Post 2012

"Using stereoscopes, the entertainment-seeking public of the 19th century immersed themselves in these 3D photographs called stereographs in a manner akin to how we now view movies, video games or cellphone screens."

Are 19th Century Stereographs The Modern-Day GIF? The Huffington Post 2012

A few years later, when I started cursivebuildings.com, I quietly began collecting these re-enlivened stereographs from the NYPL archives under the series title Reaching for the Out of Reach.

The New York Public Library: New Perspectives on Old Perspectives: How an Art Project Helped the NYPL Put Its 3D Stereograph Collection in Your Hands The New York Public Library 2012

Drawing on a collection of over 40,000 stereographs, the Stereogranimator is a project of the NYPL Labs, an experimental unit at the library using digital means to develop new tools for research.

Are 19th Century Stereographs The Modern-Day GIF? The Huffington Post 2012

We'll never know because, while a small number of public, coin-operated stereoscopes still survive in antique arcades such as the Musee Mechanique in San Francisco, the experience of these stereographs in their own time has been lost to history.

The New York Public Library: New Perspectives on Old Perspectives: How an Art Project Helped the NYPL Put Its 3D Stereograph Collection in Your Hands The New York Public Library 2012

I must have nearly gone blind viewing hundreds of The New York Public Library's online collection of some 40,000 stereographs when I first found them.

The New York Public Library: New Perspectives on Old Perspectives: How an Art Project Helped the NYPL Put Its 3D Stereograph Collection in Your Hands The New York Public Library 2012

Drawing on a collection of over 40,000 stereographs, the Stereogranimator is a project of the NYPL Labs, an experimental unit at the library using digital means to develop new tools for research.

Are 19th Century Stereographs The Modern-Day GIF? The Huffington Post 2012

The New York Public Library has released a new website called The Stereogranimator, which allows patrons to create their own animated files or 3-D images from the Library's collection of stereographs, a popular 19th Century photo format.

The New York Public Library: New Perspectives on Old Perspectives: How an Art Project Helped the NYPL Put Its 3D Stereograph Collection in Your Hands The New York Public Library 2012

It was chance that changed my private interest into a years-long art project that captivated the internet as much as such a thing can happen and made the NYPL's new Stereogranimator, an online animated gif and anaglyph creator designed by NYPL Labs and tied to the Library's vast collection of stereographs, possible.

The New York Public Library: New Perspectives on Old Perspectives: How an Art Project Helped the NYPL Put Its 3D Stereograph Collection in Your Hands The New York Public Library 2012