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Noted with interest your review of basic texts on stereographs. I would like to suggest that one of the best ways to expand one’s knowledge of stereography is by examining the pictures themselves, as often as possible, at one of the many public collections around the country. I mean not only such extensive and famous collections as that at the George Eastman House, but also those in some libraries, local historical societies, university museums, etc. Of course, these institutions can add much to our understanding through careful and intelligent organization and exhibition of the material in their curatorship.

Here at the Visual Studies Workshop a group of graduate students recently organized an exhibition meant to introduce fellow students and the Rochester community to 19th Century stereos. Taken from the 4000 or so stereo images in the VSW collection, the show was an attempt to integrate the pictures and data about them with an understanding of the era out of which they were produced. To this end, design and sequencing of the show emphasized the people of the 19th Century: in their day to day activities, as reflected in their architecture and townscape, and as revealed through the subject matter and symbolic referents of the pictures they collected and displayed in their parlors. In a separate section, early 20th Century views were presented so that the audience might make comparisons and draw their own conclusions from the differences between pictures from the different time periods.

The exhibit is no longer on the walls, but the collection is open (by appointment with the Research Center) to all.