The vintage 3D photos below are created using the Lenticular Steroscope, a contraption invented by Scotsman Sir David Brewster in 1851. His invention was presented to Queen Victoria and became a hit phenomenon during the Great Exhibition in London. The resulting images, stereographs were advertiserd with catchphrases such as “See the world from your parlour!”. In a world before radio and TV, stereograph collections were seen as hugely entertaining. The demand employed hordes of photographers who were sent out far and wide to document the world in Stereo Photography.

On the Internet, blogs such as Vintage3d create animated gifs of these stereoscopic images by editing the originals using a specific method. We feel that these help us see the past as more real, with just a quick glance.

This time we’ll focus on stereographs that show us something about industry, transportation and logistics in these old milieus.

Havana’s biggest cigar factory in 1903

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Broadway, NYC. Rany day in the 1860s.

Nanking and Scechuen Road intersection, Shanghai, China, ca. 1931.

Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore, Maryland, 1933. The tower is the Baltimore Washington Monument. On the right, the spire of Mount Vernon United Methodist Church is visible

The Panama Canal under construction, 1907

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Man making coke coal. Starkville, Colorado, 1906.

A Japanese silk factory in 1905. Work in progress: larvae cocoons are being boiled and silk reeled onto spools.

The Rialto and Grand Canal, Venice, Italy, 1902.

A railway station and rickshaws waiting to take passengers. Beijing, China, 1931.

Carpet factory in Orizaba, Mexico, 1903.

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