Stereoscope

Fast Facts

Type of thing	Domestic
Place used	In the home
Current location	Mallala Museum

From 1840-1920 the stereoscopes as illustrated provided a form of entertainment in the home and the viewers became armchair tourists.  With many of the cards displaying a range of worldwide photographs of scenes and buildings people experienced virtual travel.

The stereoscope is a device which enables stereographs to be put into position and then when the pictures are viewed they can be seen as a simulated 3D image.<span style="font-style: italic;" />

In America the doctor and writer Oliver Wendell Holmes invented a handheld device for viewing stereographs. Ultimately the stereoscope ranged from the small hand held item to a large piece of furniture  that could display a changing display of up to 100- stereographs.

It was at the Great Exhibition 1851 that stereographs were introduced to the public. The praise from Queen Victoria and the great interest shown by the public inspired the London Stereoscopic Company to develop the mass production of stereographs.  Between 1854-1856 over half a million stereographs were sold.