Stereoscope
One of the first teaching technologies to use visual instruction methods other than printed cards was the stereoscope. The stereoscope offered students an opportunity to view "exotic" locations that were otherwise beyond their reach.
As Bak explains, just as the object lesson offered students the chance to learn through their senses, “the visual and tactile attributes of optical devices like the stereoscope echoe[d] the logic of the object lesson” (147).
Although David Brewster is often credited with its invention, Sir Charles Wheatstone invented the first stereoscope model in 1837. The model had a box-like structure and two mirrors set at 45 degree angles in relation to the viewer’s eyes. The device was originally used with hand drawn images since its invention predated the development of photography by a year.
Brewster’s model, developed over the course of several years, premiered at the Great Exhibition in 1851 and was viewed by Queen Victoria. This model, which more closely resembled a pair of opera glasses, was more portable than the Wheatstone model and relied on the use of lenses to create the 3-D image seen by its users. Brewster’s stereoscopes quickly became a central part of the parlor culture of the wealthy and middle class. Not only were Brewster models examples of fine craftsmanship with their ornamental engravings and patterns and leather or cloth covered bodies, they were also a tool for transporting viewers to foreign landscapes and othered locales. As the market grew, standardized cards (3 ½” x 7”) were produced featuring photographs of tourist locations and third world countries--images that could simultaneously elevate viewers and separate them from their immigrant roots.
By 1861, Oliver Wendell Holmes had adapted the stereoscope into the less expensive and more accessible model like the artifact depicted on this page. While the stereoscope would fall out of popularity with the middle class bourgeois, it would soon be recognized as an economical tool for the classroom by proponents of the visual instruction movement and companies like Underwood & Underwood and Keystone.
Underwood & Underwood and Keystone View Company “linked the stereoscope to education and notions of national citizenship, suggesting that it could help teach subjects such as geography as well as aid in the appreciation and spread of American civilization” (404). Underwood & Underwood published Albert Osborne’s The Stereograph and the Stereoscope (1909) in order to link the technology with trending views of enlightenment and scientific pursuits. Both companies developed practices including publishing guides that made a clear connection from their materials to “intellectual, cultural, and moral development” (404). These connections were reinforced by the supplementary books and lecture notes marketed to teachers in order to guide their instruction.
Stereoscopic technology was also marketed as having the ability to elevate the lower classes, giving them the opportunity to connect with other Americans, form patriotic identity, and travel, albeit virtually, to foreign lands. For schoolchildren, especially those in rural locations, this virtual travel was a transformative part of their education. Students in rural Ohio could be transported to a classroom in Peking or to a Navaho [sic] reservation in the Southwest. These experiences reflected “unequalled visual access” available through new viewing technologies (Schiavo).
The stereoscope, though it could only be used by one student at a time, was much more economical and more widely used during the 20th century. McClusky (1923) reported that in the schools he surveyed, there were 1,642 stereopticons in use; approximately two and half times the number of lantern projectors available. The same schools owned over 268,000 stereographs in addition to another 63,601 owned by departments of education. These stereographs served as what Schiavo calls “transcriptions” of real world objects and locations that positioned student-viewers in the scene through their revolutionary technology and their reinforcement of inherently American themes of patriotism, individualism, and positivism.