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A stereograph is simply a simultaneous double-image of the same subject that, when
viewed through a stereoscope like the one pictured here, appears to be one
three-dimensional photograph. Stereographs are made by a single camera with two lenses set
approximately two-and-a-half inches apart--about the same distance as that
between the eyes. The viewer places the stereograph in the wire slots in the holder and
then looks through the two lenses, moving the holder back or forth until the single three-dimensional image is in focus.
Like lithography, stereography was of great importance in the mass production and
distribution of images in the nineteenth century. The technique dates to the 1830s, but
popular interest in the stereograph took off with improvements in photography and the
development in Britain of a simple and easy-to-use viewer, which caught Queen Victoria's
eye and the attention of the world when it was displayed at the 1851 London Crystal
Palace. The growth of the industry from that point was nothing short of phenomenal.
There were literally millions of different views available, including several thousand
relating to the Great Fire. Until techniques were devised late in the nineteenth century to
reproduce photographs in newspapers and books, stereographs were the general public's
major source of photographic images of the world. The three-dimensional feature, which
makes their subjects almost jump out at the viewer, was obviously central to their mass
appeal and added an extra dramatic effect to scenes of Chicago in ruins.
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Arresting Images 