Q & A

M.C. of Edmonton, Alberta writes:

I have a collection of these pictures. Many of them have photographs of trains and boats and appear to be quite old. Many of the scenes are foreign with several European and Indian pictures in the group. There is also a wooden viewer with them. Can you tell me anything about them?

We asked Janet Carlile to respond:

Your pictures are known as stereoscopic slides or photographs. They are based on the inventions of Wheatstone and Brewster who were early photographers in England during the late 1830’s and early 1840’s. Using a special camera with two lenses simultaneous pictures would we taken of the same subject. When viewed together using a special mechanism known as a stereoscope the image appeared as one with a seemingly three-dimensional image.

It is said that the display of stereoscopic daguerreotypes at the Great Exhibition of 1851 impressed Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (a much acclaimed amateur photographer himself) so much that stereoscopic photography soon achieved immense popularity throughout the country. In an age when home entertainment was limited to music boxes, single pose portrait photographs and small hand painted magic lantern shows stereoscopic photographs opened up and entire new world in the literal sense of the word.

North American images were of particular importance as they depicted lands and countries previously only visualized by artists renditions through prints and engravings. Seeing a train like the one you have sent would have not only told of great transportation routes and the possibility of travel but to those considering immigrating would tell of amazing engineering feats being undertaken to provide newcomers with the latest in high speed transportation. From a monetary point of view some slides are very worthy of mention with this train view having a value of roughly $65 to the right collector.

An extra bit of advice would be to store these images in a dry cool place to ensure their longevity.