Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography/Administrative History
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Stereoscopic Protean Views Collection
Dates: 1860-1900
Collection Number: P-076
Creator/Collector:
Extent: (Boxes: ½ 5x7)
Repository:
Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Abstract: 8 items of French "diableries" (or devilments) views. ca. 1860-1900, undated
Language of Material: French
Access
Research is by appointment only
Publication Rights
Permission to publish, quote or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder
Preferred Citation
Stereoscopic Protean Views Collection. Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
County
Biography/Administrative History
Stereoscopic, or 3-D photography, works because it is able to create the illusion of depth as in 3-D films. Human eyes are
set about two-and-a-half inches apart, so each eye sees a slightly different image. If one takes two slightly different photographs
that same distance apart, it is possible to converge them into a single image and recreate that illusion of depth.
Though most associate Sir David Brewster with the invention of the stereoscope, it was physicist Sir Charles Wheatstone who,
in 1838, gave an address to the Royal Scottish Society of Arts on the phenomena of binocular vision and proposed that the
equipment be called a “stereoscope to indicate its property of representing solid figures.” Eleven years later Brewster described
a binocular camera, and the first stereoscopic photographs began to be produced. By the end of the century, every Victorian
parlor had a stereoscope. Protean views, providing the illusion of movement from day to night, are considered pre-cinema
devices, a pre-cursor to the motion picture.
Scope and Content of Collection
8 items of French "diableries" (or devilments) views. ca. 1860-1900, undated
