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Keystone of Pennsylvania Stereoscope & "World Tour" Card Collection
Keystone of Pennsylvania Stereoscope & "World Tour" Card Collection
Keystone of Pennsylvania Stereoscope & "World Tour" Card Collection
Keystone of Pennsylvania Stereoscope & "World Tour" Card Collection
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Keystone of Pennsylvania Stereoscope & "World Tour" Card Collection

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The 1892 French Creek floods inundated Meadville, PA. But local amateur photographer B.L. Singley was inspired by what he saw. Singley developed multiple prints of 30 negatives of the flood damage, pasted them on cardboard mounts for sale, and launched the Keystone View Company, an early producer of stereoscopes and images. The company was an immediate success buoyed by the rise in public education, interest in global exploration and the natural sciences and a leisure time demand for novelties. By 1905 Keystone had branch offices in New York, St. Louis, San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, Chicago, Toronto, and London. The company built an international door-to-door sales force and employed a cadre of talented photographers willing to go to the ends of the earth to take stereoscopic views of ancient monuments, natural wonders, and unexpurgated portraits of indigenous cultures. Keystone eventually amassed a collection of over two million images, most often arranged in thematic series. Primarily designed for schools, libraries, and other educational institutions, they were also used by professionals who relied on stereoscopic tests – eye specialists, safety and efficiency engineers and psychologists. The cards were also in demand by the public and our Keystone view cards fall largely in that category. They are from a boxed series called “The Tour of the World” easily dated to Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration in 1932. Keystone ceased production of its stereo view cards in 1939. This collection comprises over 200 view cards of a wide range of subjects and a binocular-form stereoscope apparently never fitted with a stand. Condition: Stereo view cards in like-new condition, stereoscope in good working condition, original file boxes not included.