Stereographs of Florida And The Caribbean

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF STEREO VIEWS

The Development of the Stereograph

Sir Charles Wheatstone’s experimental stereoscope.

Developing in tandem with photography, stereography began in Great Britain in the 1830s with Sir Charles Wheatstone’s experimental stereoscope. This instrument allowed a viewer to look through two lenses that focused on a card containing two nearly identical images, giving the viewer the illusion of a single image in three-dimensions.

Stereo cards or stereograph

Stereo views, also known as stereo cards or stereographs, became popular with the general public once Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., the American physician and poet, adapted the technology to create a hand-held stereoscope in 1859. By 1875 over 100 American photographers maintained trade lists of more than 1,000 stereoviews each. By the turn of the century, few American homes were without a stereoscope and a selection of views, and American libraries began collecting stereoviews in the thousands.

Door-to-door salesmen and mail order catalogs.

Stereographic companies formed in the United States as early as the 1850s, sending photographers around the country and the world in order to capture new and unique views. Several companies printed up to 25,000 stereoviews per day, selling individual and boxed-sets of views via door-to-door salesmen and mail order catalogs. While early stereoviews were flat cards, the curved card mount was developed in 1879 to accentuate the effect of three-dimensions. It quickly took over the market. The advent of the phonograph, movies and radio in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, displaced stereoviews as popular entertainment, leading to the decline of their manufacture.

Developing in tandem with photography, stereography began in Great Britain in the 1830s with Sir Charles Wheatstone’s experimental stereoscope. This instrument allowed a viewer to look through two lenses that focused on a card containing two nearly identical images, giving the viewer the illusion of a single image in three-dimensions.

Stereo views, also known as stereo cards or stereographs, became popular with the general public once Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., the American physician and poet, adapted the technology to create a hand-held stereoscope in 1859. By 1875 over 100 American photographers maintained trade lists of more than 1,000 stereoviews each. By the turn of the century, few American homes were without a stereoscope and a selection of views, and American libraries began collecting stereoviews in the thousands.

Stereographic companies formed in the United States as early as the 1850s, sending photographers around the country and the world in order to capture new and unique views. Several companies printed up to 25,000 stereoviews per day, selling individual and boxed-sets of views via door-to-door salesmen and mail order catalogs.

STEREOVIEWS OF FLORIDA

Lemons as they grow at Lake Worth, Fla. Meadville, PA : Keystone View Co., [ca. 1900] Image number 2000-235-1

Harvesting pineapples in southern Florida. Meadville, PA : Keystone View Co., 1909. Image number 1977-011-1

Harvesting pineapples in southern Florida. Meadville, PA : Keystone View Co., 1909. Image number 1977-011-1-back

Sailboat anchored on the Loxahatchee River (Jupiter, Fla.), ca. 1890. Image number 1974-058-1

The popularity of stereographs coincided with the increasing settlement of Florida. While early stereoviews mostly featured the developing tourist meccas of Jacksonville and St. Augustine, improved transportation routes later facilitated the production of images of Tampa, St. Petersburg, Palm Beach, Miami and the Everglades.

St. Augustine

Following late nineteenth-century journalists’ and writers’ descriptions of Florida as a verdant paradise, stereoview photographers focused their cameras on the natural beauty of the sub-tropical environment. Stereoviews frequently carried captions such as “Florida, the land of Flowers and Tropical Scenery,” reflecting the Northern visitor’s enchantment with Florida’s landscape.

Native Americans in the Castillo de San Marcos (Saint Augustine, Fla.), circa 1875. Image number 1979-196-16

Key West

Most popular were images of citrus groves, coconut palms and pineapple fields, often accompanied by textual explanations of the cultivation and harvesting of tropical fruits. To appeal to the growing market of winter tourists to Florida, stereoviews also featured images of historic monuments and posh accommodations, such as St. Augustine’s Alcazar and Ponce de Leon hotels. These views served both as pictorial momentos of visits and as advertising for potential visitors to Florida.

Key West and harbor, showing North Atlantic Squadron. Meadville, PA : Keystone View Co., 1898. Image number 1980-181-1

Delivering fresh milk, Key West, Fla. Circa 1900. Image number 1998-256-1

Coaling at Key West, Fla. Littleton, N.H. : B. W. Kilburn, c1898. Image number 2007-440-1

Shipping green turtle, Key West, Fla., U. S. A. New York : Keystone View Company, [ca. 1910] Image number 2006-639-4

Flagler Street--In Miami, the Wonder City, Florida. Meadville, PA : Keystone View Co., [1925?] Image number 1978-098-1 Shows Flagler Street, looking west from SE 3rd Avenue.

Flagler Street-In Miami, the Wonder City, Florida. Meadville, PA : Keystone View Co., [1925?] Image number 1978-098-1-back

The Dining Room, Royal Palm Hotel, Miami, Fla. Philadelphia, PA : Geo. W. Griffith, [1905] Image number 1982-083-1

Miami

Although stereoviews depicting the tropical scenery of Key West were available as early as the 1870s, the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898 attracted large numbers of photographers who contributed to the publication of thousands of views. While documenting the events of the war, photographers also took the opportunity to present unique aspects of island life, including views of the capture and sale of sharks, sea turtles and sponges.

The Indian River at Rockledge, Fla. Philadelphia, PA : Geo. W. Griffith, 1903. Image number 2006-243-8

Cocoanut Blossoms and Fruit, Lake Worth, Florida. Philadelphia, PA : William H. Raw, [1900] Image number 2006-243-1 Hand tinted.

[Girl under a coconut palm, circa 1910.] Image number 1977-011-2

STEREOGRAPHS OF THE CARIBBEAN

Stereographs of the Caribbean region, like those of Florida, often focused on tropical flora and the cultivation of agricultural products like sugar cane, tobacco, coffee, bananas and cacao. The demand for the picturesque led to the production of many images of gentle landscapes, plazas and street scenes, while the desire for drama inspired stereoviews that depicted the aftermath of natural disasters such as earthquakes and volcanoes.

Dredges clearing the channel in Gaillard Cut, Panama Canal. Meadville, PA : Keystone View Co., 1916. Image number x-1858-1-back

Dredges clearing the channel in Gaillard Cut, Panama Canal. Meadville, PA : Keystone View Co., 1916. Image number x-1858-1

Coffee pickers at work : plantation scene in Guadeloupe, French West Indies. Meadville, PA : Keystone View Co., [1899] Image number 1998-529-2

Sugar Cane field hands, Montego, Jamaica, W.I. New York : Underwood & Underwood, 1900. Image number 1995-530-17

A village scene in the hills of Haiti : the market. Meadville, PA : Keystone View Co., [1900] Image number 1998-529-2

Shopping in the market, Santiago, Cuba. New York : American Stereoscopic Company, c1906. Image number 1990-134-4

Devestation wrought by the terrific earthquake in tropical Kingston, Jamaica. New York : Underwood & Underwood, 1907. Image number 1995-530-2

A theatre in Havana, Cuba. New York : American Stereoscopic Co., c1899. Image number 1999-304-1

Exterior view of entrance to Teatro de Tacon

Images of Cuba multiplied with public interest in the events of the Spanish-Cuban-American war. Popular views included the damaged hulk of the U.S.S. Maine, whose sinking in 1898 led to U.S. involvement in the war, as well as the movement of American soldiers within Cuba during the war. Images ranged from the everyday existence in encampments to the victorious entry of soldiers into Havana.

Cuban cigar makers at work in the largest factory in Havanna, Cuba. New York : Underwood & Underwood, [ca. 1910] Image number 2006-639-7

A Cuban home and family. New York : H.C. White, 1905. Image number x-1865-1 Shows a family standing before a bohio (a thatched hut).

Cabanas fortress, Havana, Cuba. Meadville, Pa. : Keystone View Company, 1899. Image number 1998-530-2

The courtyard of a typical Cuban home, Remedios, Cuba. New York : Strohmeyer & Wyman, c1899. Image number 2002-264-1

Among the bananas, Jamaica. Philadelphia, PA : C.H. Graves, 1899. Image number 1991-405-2

Kingston, Jamaica, looking north east, W.I. New York : Underwood & Underwood, 1900. Image number 1995-530-1

Village of Port Royal, near Kingston, Jamaica. New York : Underwood & Underwood, 1900. Image number 1995-530-5

Port Antonio, the great fruit-shipping port and winter resort, n. from Richmond Hill, Jamaica. New York : Underwood & Underwood, 1906. Image number 1995-530-7

PICTORIAL STYLE OF STEREOGRAPHS

In order to produce views with broad appeal, stereograph photographers generally followed a common vision and pictorial style, leading to widespread similarity of subject matter and technique. Stereoview manufacturers had great success in selling views suitable for genteel entertaining in Victorian parlors, leading to the vast production of sentimental and picturesque scenes.

Enjoying life in wheel chairs, Palm Beach, Fla. New York : Underwood & Underwood, 1899. Image number 1992-336-1

Harvesting the cocoanuts, Florida, U.S.A. [New York?] : Strohmeyer & Wyman, c1891. Image number 1997-566-1

Florida--Avenue of Cocoanut Palms. Niagara Falls, NY : Geo. Barker, 1891. Image number 1983-092-2

Alligator Joe's battle with a wounded 'gater, Palm Beach, Fla. Meadville, PA : Keystone View Co., [1905] Image number 1989-002-10

Alligator Joe's battle with a wounded 'gater, Palm Beach, Fla. Meadville, PA : Keystone View Co., [1905] Image number 1989-002-10 William B. Frazee (a.k.a. Alligator Joe) ran the first alligator farms in West Palm Beach and Miami.

Alligator Joe's battle with a wounded alligater, Palm Beach, Fla. Meadville, PA : Keystone View Co., [1905] Image number 1989-002-10 William B. Frazee (a.k.a. Alligator Joe) ran the first alligator farms in West Palm Beach and Miami.

Skirmish line, U.S. Army : preparing to Invade Cuba. New York : Underwood & Underwood, 1898. Image number 1986-110-2

Photographers specialized in depicting panoramic landscapes, bucolic agricultural vistas, and natural wonders, as well as people working in fields and relaxing at home. Images of civil unrest or poverty in the United States were largely avoided. However, patriotic images of American troops at war, the effects of natural disasters or impoverished peoples of non-industrialized countries were acceptable themes.

Stereoview photographers shared many techniques with the aim of accentuating the illusion of three dimensions. Images were structured to emphasize depth by featuring bold foregrounds and slanting lines which reached into the background. Figures were often included within landscapes to indicate scale and to impart to the viewer an experience of standing in a particular location. Tinted stereoviews, often hand colored by painters whose own market was being eclipsed by photography, enjoyed some popularity in the early years of stereoview production. This costly practice fell into decline on the heels of the 1873 economic depression and was only partially revived in the 1890s, with mixed levels of workmanship.