About the Stereograph Cards

Stereographs consist of two nearly identical photographs or photomechanical prints, paired to produce the illusion of a single three-dimensional image, usually when viewed through a stereoscope. The Prints & Photographs Division's holdings include images produced from the 1850s to the 1940s, with the bulk of the collection dating between 1870 and 1920. The online images feature cities and towns around the world, expeditions and expositions, industries, disasters, and portraits of Native Americans, presidents, and celebrities.

The online Stereograph Cards category is limited to individual stereographs that have been cataloged online, generally because they have associated copy negatives, transparencies, or digital files. In some cases the digital image shows the full stereo, in other cases, only half of the stereo displays, depending upon how the image was copied. At this point, about 5,000 stereographs have received this individual treatment, representing roughly 10 percent of the 52,000 stereos in the Prints & Photographs Division's organized holdings. (Records describing groups of stereographs from the organized collection can be searched in the Groups in High Demand category. Images made as stereo views are also found in some other online collections, including the Civil War Photographs, the Lawrence & Houseworth Collection, and the G. Eric and Edith Matson Collection.)

Information about obtaining copies is available through the "How to Order" link near the top of each catalog record.