Stereoscopic Protean Views Collection

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

Research is by appointment only

Permission to publish, quote or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder

Stereoscopic Protean Views Collection. Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

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.

8 items of French "diableries" (or devilments) views. ca. 1860-1900, undated