American Ruins: A Stereoscopic Souvenir
2011
View-Master Goggles and Film Reel
Media Archaeology Lab
Label written by Andrew Dong
A film reel for the 3-D image viewing View-Master goggles. The user would hold the goggles directly up to their eyes, cycling through seven image slides on an interchangeable reel such as the one above using the side lever. This was a kind of early ‘virtual reality’ in that the goggles would show the viewer directly a magnified version of the image slide through the goggles. The image could also be switched without disrupting the viewer’s sight through the goggles, though only still images were available.
This reel features pictures of real-life abandoned and ruined buildings in Chicago, IL, including the former Washburne Trade School, Brach’s Candy Factory and Michael Reese hospital. While often the subject of View-Master reels would be targeted towards a younger audience, retelling popular children’s stories with drawings of popular children’s stories or stills from animated movies, these reels perhaps target a more adult audience by featuring images from real life, and of a more serious subject matter. Reels could be purchased in packs separately from the View-Master goggles, and came in paper sleeves as shown above.
Image Citation
- Media Archaeology Lab, American Ruins: A Stereoscopic Souvenir, Creative Commons: Attribution, Non-Commercial