Before Flat Screens Was a Different Kind of Fun

Today, we stream much our entertainment on our computers, smartphones or flat-screen televisions. Before streaming there was cable, and before cable there were only three or four television networks providing programming. Going way back, Americans gathered around their radios to be entertained by Fibber McGee, informed by H.V. Kaltenborn or reassured by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

But reaching back before the days of radio, and even before the days of electricity, Americans entertained themselves with three-dimensional photographs viewed through a stereoscope like this one from the collection of the museum.

Stereoscopes: The Marvel of 3D

A card is inserted into the front of the stereoscope, and on the card are two nearly identical images, one taken at a slightly different angle from the other. By looking through the eyepieces, the eyes are forced to merge the two images into one, producing the optical illusion of depth…a three-dimensional picture!

The cards were sold in topical sets on practically every subject, and included world travel, circuses, Civil War views, famous personalities, bible stories, and, in the waning days of the scopes, scenes from the Great War.

Stereoscopes were a very popular form of home entertainment, and the cards were produced in the hundreds of thousands.

With the advent of radio, people turned to the airwaves for their entertainment, and very quickly the stereoscopes disappeared from the American living room.

This spring, come be entertained at the museum…in 3-D no less!

Learn more about the museum and see operating hours.

Read more about stereoscopes and stereographs at the Smithsonian – Stereographs Were the Original Virtual Reality