Victorian Weddings and Sears, Roebuck Circa 1906: Digitizing and Systematizing My Stereo View Collection
I long owned a small set of antique stereo view cards (also called stereograph cards) that once belonged to my grandfather. There were about 18 cards altogether, plus a vintage stereoscope to view them with. But at the International Antiquarian Book Fair in Boston in 2008, I took the fateful step of buying a few more cards. That did it — now I’m hooked.
I’ve bought several batches of cards on eBay, and whenever I’m in the vicinity of an antique shop I make a pass to see what kinds of stereo views are on sale (there are usually at least a few). I probably have 300 to 400 cards now, which is still a small group by most stereo view collectors’ standards. I wrote about my early adventures in stereo view collecting at Xconomy in December 2008.
Lately I’ve decided to get a little bit more systematic about the collection. I’m gradually going through the cards, grouping them according to the date I purchased them, numbering them, and digitizing them with a scanner. I’m uploading the finished scans to a growing Flickr photoset of stereo views, where they’re open to all (under a Creative Commons non-commercial share-alike license).
Today I uploaded a group that’s part of a genre collectors call “sentimentals,” although it also has elements of comedy. It’s a boxed set of 25 cards called “Wedding Bells.” I’m not sure who the set’s publisher is or when it came out; the box doesn’t say. I’m guessing it’s from around 1895. The set shows a young couple courting, proposing, preparing for their wedding, getting married, etc.
The set doesn’t have much of the historic, documentary, or geographical value that make most of my other cards intriguing, but I do think it offers an interesting glimpse of the Victorian ideals around courtship and marriage, including the wedding fashions of the time. Card No. 25 is cute: it shows Grandma reading a letter from the young couple, with the caption “I Always Knew It Would Be a Boy.”
I’m also working on digitizing a fascinating collection of 50 stereo cards from approximately 1906 giving a comprehensive tour of the Sears, Roebuck & Co. complex in Chicago, Illinois. These cards have extensive captions on the backs, so I’m scanning those too.
[Update 3/7/10] I’ve finished scanning the Sears, Roebuck cards. They’re collected in this photoset at Flickr.
