San Francisco Stereoviews
|
|
|
Show:
- Notes (this page)
- Stereoview list with thumbnails and detailed information
- Stereoview index with thumbnails only
| Search (e.g., Griffith or Jefferson; no spaces): |
Introduction
I collect San Franciscana, primarily old books about the Gold Rush and the 1906 earthquake. At an antique store many years ago, I bought a lovely stereoscopic slide showing the Victorian Cliff House (middle thumbnail in above row) from Ocean Beach. This card later inspired me to scrounge on eBay for more San Francisco stereoviews, mostly during a period of about ten months in 2000. The supply of the more common S.F. stereoviews (typically related to the 1906 earthquake and fire) appears to outweigh the demand, so they are cheap; I didn't pay more than $4 for any single slide, and my collection cost about $200 in toto for nearly a hundred slides. Older stereoviews are available, like the wonderful Carleton Watkins stereoviews, but they are usually quite expensive.
This page lists 78 stereoviews from my collection. I also have a number of duplicates, not cataloged here. Almost all date from just after the 1906 earthquake and fire. Quality varies widely, both in the quality of the original and in wear. The originals are all about 7" x 3.5", here scanned in color at 300 dpi. Many came in sets.
Publishers
- James M. Davis, New York City and St. Louis, Mo.: one card, reproduction on lightweight card stock, copyright 1906 by B. W. Kilborn.
-
Griffith & Griffith:
- Set on olive-colored medium weight card stock, all in good condition. The complete set includes 25 cards, but my set is missing #4.
- Set on white light weight card stock, with the same scenes and captions but without the Griffith & Griffith copyright. My set includes 18 of the original 25 cards, missing #2, #3, #4, #10, #15, #17, and #20.
- Clinton Johnson, publisher, Los Angeles, Cal.: San Francisco Earthquake Series. Five cards on light weight white card stock. The photographic reproduction is excellent, but unfortunately all are in poor condition.
- Keystone View Company: one card, reproduction on lightweight card stock.
- Siegel, Cooper and Co., Chicago: series Scenes from San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, April, 1906. Reverse stamped: Copyright by Tom M. Philips 1906. Seven high-quality cards on heavy gray card stock, photos attached (i.e., not printed on the card).
- W.S. Smith: San Francisco Fire and Earthquake Series, copyright 1906. Twenty cards in color on light weight olive-colored card stock; slightly curved (horizontally, for the stereoscope).
- Underwood & Underwood: Half a dozen cards, including the first card in my collection (and probably still my favorite), showing Cliff House. Very high quality glossy photos attached to curved very heavy dark stock. Several of the cards have reverse side text giving the card caption in six languages.
- H. C. White & Co., Bennington, Vt.: one card, reproduction on lightweight card stock.
- [Unknown:] Unidentified set of five cards in color on dotted backgrounds, with texts on the reverse. `
- [Unknown:] A few miscellaneous stereoviews with no publisher given.
Stereoscopy
While these photos of post-earthquake San Francisco are interesting per se, of course you should view them in stereo. The Wikipedia stereoscopy article gives general information on stereo imaging. There are two different ways to view stereo images without a stereoscope, called freeviewing. With the normal left-right image orientation, you can focus past the image to see the stereo image (parallel or walleyed viewing). Alternatively, you can focus in front of a right-left reversed image to see the stereo image (crosseyed viewing). Freeviewing is nicely described here, with simple illustrations and good viewing advice; I won't repeat it here. My Stereograms page shows a few of my own stereo photos.
Viewer
My browser-based viewer (pure PHP/CSS, no Java) displays either a normal or a reversed image. It also lets you turn on small white boxes at the sides of each image. The boxes give your eyes a strong clue for converging the stereo image, which makes freeviewing much easier for me (your mileage may vary). I like to view from about 6' away from our big HDTV, using the viewer with reversed images, boxes, and width 1600 so that the slide fills the browser window. The best images (Siegel, Cooper and Underwood) look great, a real 3D window into the past.
Viewer controls:
- > or < moves forward to next slide or backward to previous slide.
- Stop returns to the stereoview list.
- Width - or + displays a narrower or wider image, though you may find it easier to scale the image by zooming your browser window.
- Show normal or Show reversed displays a normal l/r image for parallel viewing or a reversed r/l image for crosseyed viewing.
- Show boxes or Hide boxes turns the small white boxes on or off.
- Show front or Show back shows the other side of the slide.
- Show alternate shows another version of the same slide (for the Griffith & Griffith slides, on either olive or white stock).
- Click on the image itself in the viewer to display the full-resolution original, then use the back button on your browser to return to the viewer.
