2016: STEREOVIEWS, THE FIRST 3-D

 Photography was invented in France in the first half of the nineteenth century.  Almost immediately it was understood that a three-dimensional (3-D) effect could be achieved by taking two photographs of the same subject, at the same time, with side-by-side camera lenses separated by the distance between our 2 human eyes.

When these two images were mounted on a card, then viewed with the aid of a device such as you see her, a three-dimensional effect was created. The first such hand-held device was invented by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Before I-phones and I-pads, before computers, before video games, TV, or radio, even before motion pictures these stereoviews were a primary source of entertainment in most homes worldwide for 100 years.