0.2 Egypt through the stereoscope: stereography and virtual travel  (Page 3/3)

Breasted embraced the educational potential of stereographs, recommending “this system of stay-at-home travel”for accurately reproducing the monuments and historic sites of Egypt and conveying viewers to the past (11). Even if people couldnot afford to travel to Egypt, Breasted said, they could enjoy “a vivid prospect” on 100 carefully selected sites, learn about Egypt,and become a “citizen of the world” (12, 13). As Evans notes, “He envisioned its benefits and great importance to stimulatinginterest in Egyptology and attracting young recruits. Underwood and Underwood also knew the attraction Egypt had, even more so in theVictorian age of Egyptomania.” Thus in 1901 Breasted agreed to write a guidebook for Underwood that would accompany a set of 100stereoviews. Underwood asked Breasted to “…put what he has to say in the first person much as he would talk as if he could stand witha person in the presence of the actual places” (letter from Underwood and Underwood, July 31, 1901; qtd. by Evans). From thestereographs created by photographer Charles H. Baker, Breasted selected the 100 views that were included in Egypt through theStereoscope and wrote the accompanying text, completing the 360 page book in 1905. In the introduction to Egypt through the Stereoscope , Breasted touted the ability of the stereoscope to make a distant place seem real and allow close study: “In thepreparation of the following pages, I have constantly had my eyes within the hood of the stereoscope, and I cannot forbear to expresshere the growing surprise and delight, with which I observed as the work proceeded, that it became more and more easy to speak of theprospect revealed in the instrument, as one actually spread out before me. The surprising depth and atmosphere with which thescientifically constructed instrument interpreted what were actually but bits of paper and pasteboard, were a revelation;indeed, I constantly sat by an open window looking out over the actual ruins of the Nile Valley, which I could study, one afteranother, at will” (13). Breasted embraced the technology of stereoscopy, marveling at the way that carefully constructeddevices could simulate distant monuments. As Evans notes, “Breasted was intensely interested in new methods and new techniques inrecovering early chapters of man’s history, but chiefly in promoting a new attitude to and a new interpretation of the past.”In 1908, a second edition of Egypt through the Stereoscope and the accompanying stereocards were issued. Egypt through the Stereoscopeand most of the accompanying stereographs are available through the TIMEA project.

References

Darrah, William. The World of Stereographs. Gettysburg, PA: Darrah, 1977.

Evans, Elaine A. “In The Sandals of Pharaoh: James Henry Breasted and the Stereoscope.” McClung Museum. 9 August2006. (External Link)

Fowles, Jib. “Stereography and the standardization of vision.” Journal of American Culture. 17.2 (1994): 89-94.

Hoelscher, Steven. “The Photographic Construction of Tourist Space in Victorian America.” Geographical Review. 88.4 (1998): 548-570. JSTOR.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell. The Stereoscope and Stereoscopic Photographs . New York and London: Underwood&Underwood, 1906.

Van De Mieroop, Marc "Breasted, James Henry,” American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. 13 August 2006. (External Link)