Keystone View Company
Stereographs or views are paired images of two slightly different views. These images are created with a two-lens camera. The lenses are offset at about the same spacing as with the distance between human eyes. The dual-lens camera produces paired-stereographic negatives. Load a stereograph into a stereo viewer and the user can see the paired views as if they were a single photograph. Consequently, the stereoscopically combined photographs transform into a three-dimensional (3D) view.
The leading producer and marketer of these stereoviews was the Keystone View Company, founded by amateur photographer, B. L. Singley of Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1892. Taking advantage of the public’s curiosity in viewing disasters, Singley launched the company into the stereo market with sets of thirty stereo cards which recorded the flooding of the nearby French Creek.
The growth of stereo photography, depicting national and international subjects, paralleled the emergence of modern America on the world’s stage. Other factors which bolstered stereography’s popularity was the novelty of experiencing explicit three-dimensional detail in a stereo card and the potential for card owners to frequently revisit views of world events in private or during social gatherings.
Typical Keystone stereoview events included: the Boxer Rebellion in China; the Russo-Japanese War; and the Spanish American War with the sinking of the Spanish Fleet, Cuba and Philippines. Also typical, is the making of the modern Presidency as seen in the multitude of photographs tracing the country-wide tours of William McKinley and his successor, Theodore Roosevelt. Keystone stereoview subjects also included construction of the Panama Canal; the Klondike gold rush; various World Expositions and Fairs; boxing champion Gene Tunney and a multitude of other sports celebrities. Common industrial subjects included railroad views of depots, passenger, freight and work trains; steel and auto factories; tunnel construction; the ruined aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake; and the explosion of skyscrapers and bridge construction in New York City. Other examples of historical significance included inventors, statesmen, humanitarians, and industrialists, such as Thomas Edison, J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Mark Twain, Upton Sinclair, Carrie Nation, and the Wright Brothers. Scenes in over 130 foreign countries and the “Wonders of the World” also proved popular with the public.
A large number of Keystone stereoview sales were generated through the efforts of door-to-door salesmen, often groups of college students who would canvas entire towns. The stereograph’s combination of educational value and entertainment potential appealed to emerging middle-class families. Another sales engine which powered Keystone View Company’s success well into the 20th Century was its marketing of educational systems. Schools, libraries, and other educational institutions were provided with boxed sets of stereo cards at competitive prices. In 1922, Keystone boasted that every school district in a city with a population of over 50,000 had the Keystone System for each of its schools.
Keystone’s stereo publishing reign continued through 1930′s. Finally, with over 40,000 titles on the Keystone list, production of stereo cards stopped in 1939.