A History of Photography in USC Libraries Collections

Glass stereograph, 1914

This is a photograph of pupils of a Mabumbu school taken by the photographer Jaques Delpech. In these two nearly identical photographs, we can see what seems to be young students standing in a straight line. Since this image was taken at a school, we can assume the students are standing in front of their teacher. What makes this image all the more captivating is that this is an example of an image taken with a stereoscopic camera. The nearly identical images produced by these types of cameras provided a 3D view of the scenery they captured. To see this illusion, people would place these images in a special device, hold it up to their eyes, and view an image that would seem as if it could come to life. Stereoscopic photography allowed people to visit landscapes virtually without having to actually travel to the places that were photographed. For instance, this stereoscopic image of a Mabumbu school could easily have been part of a collection that studied the environments of schools in different areas of the world. A stereoscopic image like this could then be reproduced and circulated to others who wished to see the Mabumbu school environment.

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