The California Indian in Three-Dimensional Photography
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UC Merced Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Title The California Indian in Three-Dimensional Photography Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8pw7d44g Journal Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 1(1) ISSN 0191-3557 Author Palmquist, Peter E Publication Date 1979-12-01 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The California Indian in Three-Dimensional Photography PETER E. PALMQUIST ARLY-DAY stereoscopic photographs humor; all became common knowledge E provide a truly unique and valuable through this pervasive medium. To study the resource for study of the California Indian. development of the stereoscope in the United Immensely popular during the nineteenth and States is to participate vicariously in the early twentieth centuries, the twin-imaged modes, aspirations, and other phenomena of stereograph card is much more than a quaint adolescent America. This article is intended to anachronism. When viewed today, such provide the reader with an overview of the images are often our only pictorial link with history of stereoscopy and a concise look at many cultural and historical aspects of Indian photo-stereoscopic imagery as it relates to the life during the past century. Most important, Indians of California. however, is the fact that the stereograph is the only early photographic medium able to THE STEREOGRAPHIC IMAGE recreate visual and spatial understandings that The principles of binocular vision—the approximate direct human vision. In this mental fusing of slightly dissimilar images, regard, the stereoscopic photograph is without seen separately by our two eyes, into one image peer. with three-dimensional characteristics—were Not surprisingly, stereoscopic photography known in ancient times. However, it was not was destined to become the most significant until 1832 that Sir Charles Wheatstone actu and influential mode of visual communication ally discovered how to produce this effect in the period between the mid-1850's and artificially by viewing two "flat" pictures World War I. Often likened to an early form drawn from slightly differing viewpoints of television, the stereoscopic viewer with its through an instrument called a stereoscope. accompanying basket of stereo cards, served At mid-century, the application of this split- the cultural and informational needs of Ameri image phenomenon to photography heralded cans during the years of rapid change which the onset of an enormously successful exploita followed the Industrial Revolution (Taft 1938: tion of the public's fascination with "real" 167-185). space (Lindquist-Cock 1970:361-362). The stereograph brought the "World" into The first published mention of a stereo the parlor. Far-away places and historic hap scopic photograph (stereodaguerreotype) penings; occupational modes and mechanical seems to have been made in the little-known innovations; renowned statesmen and stage English publication. The London Mining personalities; the fine arts and Victorian Journal. A little later, in an excerpt based on [89] 90 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY this mention, the Scientific American of May ment, which began on November 21, 1853, 8, 1852, reported having seen "stereoscopic announced: ". Just received, per Wells, daguerreotypes at the establishment of Messrs. Fargo & Co. and Adams & Co. Expresses, a Voightlander and Evans at Knightsbridge," fine lot of Stereoscopic Cases . ." His adver explaining: tisement, however, goes on to imply that the . two distinct copies of the same image process was already in use in the San Francisco are simultaneously taken in two different area: ". we would say, do not condemn the cameras . the two daguerreotypes so Stereoscopic Daguerreotype until you pay us taken are placed in a peculiarly constructed a visit and see a PERFECT ONE, as many box, termed a stereoscope, which admits a taken in this city are very imperfect" (San view of one picture to the right eye only, Francisco Commercial Advertiser, November and the other to the left . [Scientific 21, 1853). American, May 8, 1852]. Soon the process was available in Sacra mento, San Jose, Marysville, and other nearby Also in 1852, the Boston firm of South- towns in the central California region. How worth & Hawes showed a stereoscopic ever, despite the great fanfare, the stereoscopic daguerreotype of the Greek sculpture "The daguerreotype was not a commercial success. Laocoon" in the Boston Athenaeum; the June Costing about $15 per sitting, the process was issue of the magazine To-day found "the beyond the means of the average patron. This, illusion . absolute." The success of this coupled with many new innovations and venture prompted them to build a "Grand improvements in photography, led to a rapid Parlor and Gallery Stereoscope" which decline in its popularity (Palmquist 1979). resembled a piano and contained a dozen By 1856, the stereoscopic daguerreotype pro pairs of stereoscopic daguerreotypes which cedure was all but obsolete and there are no the visitor changed by turning a crank known instances in which the process was used (Newhall 1976:46). to capture the features or environs of a Cali From its inception, the idea of daguerre fornia Indian. otype likenesses in stereo excited the imagina tion of the American public. Still, the process Another process to emerge during the was cumbersome and impractical for the mid-1850's was the stereograph on glass average client because of the difficulty of (albumin transparency). Cheaper than the arranging and viewing the twin daguerre stereo daguerreotype, the .glass stereograph otypes. Thus, the process remained moribund was produced by printing a collodion (wet- until the invention of a device known as the plate) negative onto sensitized glass. This Mascher Stereoscopic Case. Patented on process enjoyed some popularity until the March 8, 1853, this clever device enabled the early I860's. Still other processes related to gallery patron to conveniently house his wet-plate photography were also used for brief stereoscopic likeness in a case that also held periods, including views on porcelain and even its own built-in viewer. The development of stereo tintypes; however, they are very rare the Mascher Case made it possible for the (Darrah 1977:15-16). subsequent wildfire expansion of the stereo It was not until the advent of paper prints daguerreotype from coast to coast (Brey mounted on cards that stereo photography 1978:14-19). was able to reach its productive potential. San Francisco "daguerrean" Robert H. Introduced commercially by the Langenheim Vance may have been the first to advertise the Brothers of New York in 1854, the familiar new procedure in California. His advertise paper stereo view remained popular well into THREE-DIMENSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY 91 the twentieth century. There were three basic graph had reached an incredible momentum. advantages of the card over the glass stereo Baudelaire, speaking at the Salon of 1859, may graphs which accounted for its immediate well have said it best: "A thousand hungry eyes success: ". it was cheaper, it was not fragile were bending over the stereoscope, as if they and it could be viewed comfortably" (Darrah were the peepholes of infinity." 1964:14). Or, as Oliver Wendell Holmes wryly observed, "Twelve glass views examined in THE AMERICAN INDIAN IN STEREO bright sunlight are good for one headache." Although later than sooner, it was inevi By 1858, paper stereographs were well on table that someone would turn his double-lens their way to becoming established in several of camera on the Native American. The first the major eastern cities. In New York, the known instance in which the American Indian Langenheim Brothers, long famous as the was pictured by a stereographer dates from foremost producers of glass stereographs, the Lander expedition in the summer of 1859. began to issue card stereos in greatly increased Sponsored by the Federal government, this numbers. Other firms now began to take exploring party was detailed to survey a wagon advantage of the easier and cheaper paper road in the mountainous territory west of the process and also entered the burgeoning Mississippi along a route often known as the market. The Edward Anthony Company (later northern branch of the Oregon Trail. The E. & H. T. Anthony Company) began its climb expedition was led by Fredrick West Lander, to preeminence as one of the most important a colonel in the United States Army and American stereopublishers in the summer of included a squadron of army troops for pro 1859. By the end of 1860, no fewer than two tection from Indian marauders. Rolling stock hundred United States photographers were consisted of mule and horse-drawn covered actively producing stereoscopic images wagons typical of the period (Snell 1958; (Darrah 1977:21-24). Hendricks 1964; Bendix 1974). The stereoscopic movement was world Albert Bierstadt, destined to become one wide. The principal cities of Europe were every of America's best known landscape painters, bit as anxious to obtain views of frontier joined the Lander expedition in St. Louis America as Americans were to revitalize the in April, 1859. Col. Lander's official report of binding links of culture and family origin. In the journey, describes Bierstadt's purposes: 1862, the London Stereoscopic Company sold nearly a million views, with Terrier of Paris A, Bierstadt, Esq., a distinguished artist a close second. In America, Edward Anthony, of New York, and S. F. Frost, of Boston, one of the many United States stereo pro accompanied the expedition with a full ducers, sold several hundred thousand stereo corps of artists, bearing their own ex graphs during the year 1861-62. At this point, penses. They have taken sketches of the more than a thousand photographers had most remarkable of the views along the entered the American marketplace to produce route, and a set of stereoscopic views of emigrant trains, Indians, camp scenes, an unbelievable output which numbered in the etc., which are highly valuable and would several millions (Darrah 1964:8).