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Western Views in Eastern Parlors: The Contribution of the Stereograph Photographer to the Conquest of the West

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2009

Richard N. Masteller
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Extract

If students of American Studies have seen fit to mention the stereograph at all in their discussions of the Victorian era, they have tended to treat it as a toy, intent on images of another sort or on data more arcane than the parlor images so popular in the last five decades of the nineteenth century. But the production and sales figures for stereographs, the frequent advertisements for them, and the discussions about them throughout the second half of the century in such photographic journals as The Philadelphia Photographer and in cultural organs ranging from Scientific American to the Atlantic Monthly to Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper suggest that they were more than a fad. Hermann Vogel, the internationally respected German professor of photochemistry and teacher of Alfred Stieglitz, echoed one merchandiser's slogan when he declared in 1883, “I think there is no parlor in America where there is not a stereoscope.” Students of American culture should carefully consider Vogel's remark; especially in view of its unusual distinction as both an image and an artifact, the stereograph functions as a valuable tool for illuminating and evaluating the tastes of a large cross-section of our population during and after the Civil War.

Type
Research Article
Information
Prospects , Volume 6 , October 1981 , pp. 55 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

NOTES

1. The Philadelphia Photographer carried frequent articles and advertisements concerning stereographs, including “Stereoscopic Pictures,” (1868), 164Google Scholar; “Stereoscopic Views of the West,” 10 (1873), 64Google Scholar; “A Catalog of Stereoscopic Views … [notice in the ‘Editor's Table’],” 12 (1875), 31.Google Scholar In 1860 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper carried an advertisement that could be viewed stereoscopically; it is reproduced in Taft, Robert, Photography and the American Scene (1938); rpt. New York: Dover, 1964), p. 182.Google Scholar See also “Scott's Improved Stereoscope,” Scientific American, 12 (1857), 382.Google Scholar Articles in the Atlantic Monthly are cited in note 15 below.

2. “Address of Dr. Vogel,” The Philadelphia Photographer, 20 (1883), 282Google Scholar; also quoted in Taft, , Photography and the American Scene, p. 167.Google Scholar The London Stereoscopic Company used the slogan, “no home without a stereoscope.” Gernsheim, Helmut and Gernsheim, Alison, The History of Photography (London: Thames & Hudson, 1969), p. 257.Google Scholar

3. Despite various shortcomings, these are important sources: Newhall, Beaumont and Edkins, Diana, William H. Jackson (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Morgan & Morgan, 1974)Google Scholar; Horan, James D., Timothy O'Sullivan: America's Forgotten Photographer (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1966)Google Scholar; and Newhall, Beaumont and Newhall, Nancy, T. H. O'Sullivan: Photographer (Rochester, N.Y.: George Eastman House, 1966).Google Scholar

4. The most informative secondary source on Western expeditions is Goetzmann, William H., Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966).Google Scholar See also Bartlett, Richard A., Great Surveys of the American West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962).Google Scholar Both contain extensive bibliographies. Secondary sources focusing on the Powell expeditions are Darrah, William Culp, Powell of the Colorado (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1951)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Stegner, Wallace, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1954).Google Scholar See also the introductions and biographical sketches included in the Utah Historical Quarterly, cited in the following paragraph.

Primary works of the Powell expedition members include journals, articles, and books. The journals are reprinted in the Utah Historical Quarterly, 7 (1939), 1–140Google Scholar; 15 (1947), 1–270; and 16–17 (1948–49), 1–540; and in Fowler, Don D., ed., “Photographed All the Best Scenery”: Jack Hillers's Diary of the Powell Expeditions, 1871–1875 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1972).Google Scholar Primary articles are Beaman, E. O., “The Cañon of the Colorado, and the Moquis Pueblos,” Appletons' Journal, 11 (1874), 481–84, 513–16. 545–48, 590–93, 623–26, 641–44, 686–89Google Scholar; idem, “The Colorado Exploring Expedition,” Anthony's Photographic Bulletin, 3 (1872), 463–65Google Scholar; idem, “A Tour Through The Grand Cañon of the Colorado,” Anthony's Photographic Bulletin, 3 (1872), 703–5Google Scholar; Powell, John Wesley, “The Ancient Province of Tusayan,” Scribner's Monthly, 11 (1876), 193–213Google Scholar; idem, “The Cañons of the Colorado,” Scribner's Monthly, 9 (1875), 293–310, 394–409, 523–37Google Scholar; and idem, “An Overland Trip to the Grand Cañon,” Scribner's Monthly, 10 (1875), 659–78.Google Scholar Primary books are Dellenbaugh, Frederick S., A Canyon Voyage (1908; rpt. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1926, 1962)Google Scholar; idem.The Romance of the Colorado River (1902; rpt. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904)Google Scholar; Powell, John Wesley, Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1875)Google Scholar; and idem.Canyons of the Colorado (1895; rpt. New York: Argosy-Antiquarian, 1964).Google Scholar

Finally, consult the excellently illustrated book, based on an exhibition, by Naef, Weston J., Era of Exploration: The Rise of Landscape Photography in the American West, 1860–1885Google Scholar for Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1975).

It is important to note that there were in fact two Powell expeditions on the Colorado River. The 1869 journey went the entire length of the Grand Canyon, but no photographer was included. The 1871–72 expedition had traveled into the Grand Canyon as far as Kanab Creek, when high water halted further progress by river. Powell merged the two expeditions in his Scribner's Monthly articles and his 1875 report, and scholars of his work need to keep in mind this considerable poetic license. See Stegner, . Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, pp. 147–52.Google Scholar

5. For a more detailed history of the stereoscope and stereograph, see Gernsheim, , History of Photography, pp. 253–62Google Scholar, and Taft, , Photography and the American Scene, pp. 167–85.Google Scholar William Culp Darrah has written the most helpful books for classifying and identifying various kinds of stereographs: Stereo Views: A History of Stereographs in America and Their Collection (Gettysburg, Pa.: Times & News, 1964)Google Scholar and The World of Stereographs (Gettysburg, Pa.: William C. Darrah, 1977).Google Scholar A useful collection of views, critical essays, and chronology is Earle, Edward, ed. Points of View: The Stereograph in America—A Cultural History (Rochester, N.Y.: Visual Studies Workshop Press, 1979).Google Scholar Information in this paragraph is from Stereo Views, pp. 3–7.Google Scholar

6. Darrah, , Stereo Views, pp. 27–28.Google Scholar

7. Ibid., p. 30.

8. Ibid., p. 8.

9. Ibid., pp. 35–36.

10. Taft, , Photography and the American Scene, p. 502, note 374.Google Scholar

11. Darrah, , Stereo Views, pp. 8, 12.Google Scholar

12. Ivins, William M. Jr., Prints and Visual Communication (Cambridge; Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953), pp. 135–57Google Scholar; and Jussim, Estelle, Visual Communication and the Graphic Arts: Photographic Technologies in the Nineteenth Century (New York: R. R. Bowker, 1974), passim.Google Scholar

13. This three-dimensionality is unfortunately an aspect of the image I cannot demonstrate on the two-dimensional page of a journal; however, people who have looked into the modern “Viewmaster” viewer have had the same visual experience of three dimensions that the stereoscope imparted.

14. Quoted in Taft, , Photography and the American Scene, p. 177.Google Scholar

15. Holmes, Oliver Wendell, “The Stereoscope and the Stereograph,” Allan tic Monthly, 3 (1859), 738–48Google Scholar; idem, “Sun-Painting and Sun-Sculpture; with a Stereoscopic Trip Across the Atlantic,” Atlantic Monthly, 8 (1861), 13–29Google Scholar; and idem, “Doings of the Sunbeam,” Atlantic Monthly, 12 (1863), 1–15.Google Scholar

16. Holmes, , “Sun-Painting and Sun-Sculpture,” p. 15Google Scholar; also quoted in Taft, , Photography and the American Scene, pp. 182–83.Google Scholar

17. Holmes, , “The Stereoscope and the Stereograph,” p. 744.Google Scholar

18. Ibid., p. 745.

19. Ibid., pp. 745–46.

20. Kozloff, Max, “The Box in the Wilderness,” Artforum, 14 (10 1975), 56.Google Scholar

21. Sontag, Susan, “Photography,” New York Review of Books, 10 18, 1973, pp. 59–63.Google Scholar The quotation is from p. 60. See also her other articles in the New York Review of Books: “Freak Show,” 11 15, 1973, pp. 13–19Google Scholar; “Shooting America.” 04 18, 1974, pp. 17–24Google Scholar; “Photography: The Beauty Treatment,” 11 28, 1974, pp. 35–39Google Scholar; “Fascinating Fascism,” 02 6, 1975, pp. 23–30Google Scholar; “Looking at Photographs,” 01 20, 1977, pp. 53–59Google Scholar; “Photography Unlimited,” 06 23, 1977, pp. 25–32.Google Scholar These have been collected with some modifications in Sontag, Susan, On Photography (New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1977).Google Scholar

22. Quoted in Taft, , Photography and the American Scene, p. 182.Google Scholar

23. For a survey of this subject, see Coke, Van Deren, The Painter and the Photograph, rev. ed. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1972)Google Scholar, and Scharf, Aaron, Art and Photography (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1969).Google Scholar More narrowly focused is Lindquist-Cock, Elizabeth, The Influence of Photography on American Landscape Painting, 1839–1880 (New York: Garland, 1977).Google Scholar

24. Taft, , Photography and the American Scene, p. 268.Google Scholar See also Lindquist-Cock, Elizabeth, “Stereoscopic Photography and the Western Paintings of Albert Bierstadt,” The Art Quarterly, 33 (1970), 360–78.Google Scholar

25. Stegner, , Beyond the Hundredth Meridian (note 4 above), pp. 182–83.Google Scholar See also Lindquist-Cock, , The Influence of Photography on American Landscape Painting, pp. 123–57.Google Scholar

26. Stegner, , Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, pp. 182–83.Google Scholar

27. For three examples of such clouds and sunsets, see Scribner's Monthly, 9 (1875), 394. 395, 524.Google Scholar

28. Stegner, , Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, p. 151.Google Scholar Two of the more melodramatic illustrations that had no photographic precedents are “Fire in Camp” and “The Rescue,” Scribner's Monthly, 9 (1875), 304, 305.Google Scholar

29. Browne, J. C., “Report of the Committee on the Progress of Photography,” The Philadelphia Photographer, 8 (1871), 207–8.Google Scholar

30. Roche, T. C., “Landscape and Architectural Photography,” Anthony's Photographic Bulletin, 4 (1873), 261–62.Google Scholar

31. Potter, J. C., “What I Know About Outdoor Work,” Anthony's Photographic Bulletin, 5 (1874), 52.Google Scholar

32. Mullen, James, “Landscape Photography,” Anthony's Photographic Bulletin, 5 (1874), 57.Google Scholar

33. Ibid.

34. Darrah, , Stereo Views (note 5 above), p. 37.Google Scholar

35. Utah Historical Quarterly, 16–17 (1948–1949), 555–56, note 7.Google Scholar

36. Beaman, E. O., “The Cañon of the Colorado, and the Moquis Pueblos,” Appletons' Journal, 11 (1874), 591.Google Scholar

37. Dellenbaugh, , A Canyon Voyage (note 4 above), pp. 165, 219–20.Google Scholar This and subsequent quotations from Dellenbaugh are from the 1926 reprint.

38. Thompson, Almon, “Diary of Almon Harris Thompson,” Utah Historical Quarterly. 7 (1939), 51–52.Google Scholar

39. Most of these names were suggested during the first expedition.

40. Thompson, , “Diary of Almon Harris Thompson,” p. 38.Google Scholar

41. Beaman, , “Cañon of the Colorado,” pp. 545–46.Google Scholar

42. Fowler, , “Photographed All the Best Scenery” (note 4 above), p. 75.Google Scholar

43. Dellenbaugh, , Canyon Voyage, p. xxviii.Google Scholar

44. Ibid.

45. Powell, Walter Clement, “Journal of Walter Clement Powell,” Utah Historical Quarterly, 16–17 (1948–1949), 329–30.Google Scholar

46. Quoted in Fowler, , “Photographed All the Best Scenery,” p. 39.Google Scholar

47. Jones, Stephen Vandiver, “Journal of Stephen Vandiver Jones,” Utah Historical Quarterly, 16–17 (1948–1949), 65, 383.Google Scholar

48. Powell, . “Journal of Walter Clement Powell,” p. 325.Google Scholar

49. Thompson, , “Diary of Almon Harris Thompson,” p. 36.Google Scholar

50. By the time Beaman left the expedition in February 1872, during the winter layover in Kanab, Utah, he had been through Lodore Canyon, Desolation Canyon, Labyrinth Canyon, Cataract Canyon, and Glen Canyon. When Fennemore proved an unsatisfactory photographer, Hillers stepped into the role for the journey through the Glen, Marble, and Grand canyons, until river travel was halted at the mouth of Kanab Creek in September 1872. Meanwhile, in midsummer of 1872 Beaman photographed in the Moqui towns of northeastern Arizona. The next year Anthony's Photographic Bulletin, 4 (1873), 336Google Scholar, announced that he was photographing in the Adirondacks-another indication of his attempt to practice photographic artistry on popular landscapes.

51. Darrah, . Powell of the Colorado (note 4 above), p. 182, note 7.Google Scholar

52. Darrah, , Stereo Views (note 5 above), p. 83.Google Scholar Powell's estimate is contained in a letter he wrote to the Chicago Tribune, reprinted in Utah Historical Quarterly, 16–17 (1948–1949), 405.Google Scholar The International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House has approximately 250 stereographs by Beaman and Hillers. Hillers's images are readily available in Fowler's book, and Beaman's (although poorly reproduced) in Dellenbaugh's books. A large collection of both photographers' work is in the Still Pictures Section of the National Archives.

53. Darrah, . Stereo Views, p. 16.Google Scholar

54. Beaman, . “Cañon of the Colorado,” p. 591.Google Scholar

55. “New Stereoscopic Pictures,” Anthony's Photographic Bulletin, 4 (1873). 160.Google Scholar