California State Library is Digitizing and Providing Online Access to 3-D (Stereoscopic) Images From 1800s

From the Sacramento Bee:

They’re coming out of the vault and into the digital age. In slow but meticulous work at the California State Library in downtown Sacramento, more than 10,000 old sepia-toned 3-D photos – most from the 1800s – are being dusted off and converted to computer-ready images.
Officially known as stereoscopic photos, they were a popular turn-of-the-century parlor activity, shared like postcards and viewed through hand-held viewers that turned the side-by-side double photos into a single 3-D image.
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He [Vincent Beiderbecke, a state library digital specialist] and another digital specialist, Matt Bartok, scan the double images and upload them to a 3-D sharing website, www.phereo.com/CaliforniaStateLibrary. As of now, they have 93 black-and-white photos on the site but hope to have 200 uploaded by year’s end. Each can be viewed in several formats, including an anaglyph version that requires the red-and-blue cardboard glasses for the full 3-D effect and a “wiggle” format where the people and places appear to move.

Read the Complete Article (912 Words)
Direct to California State Library Stereoscopic Collection on Phereo

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