Before smartphones or mobile VR there were precious few ways for your eyes to feast on a far off land. The View-Master was one of the best ones. It could transport a person anywhere—provided they had the imagination and the patience to thumb through the dozens of slides on a View-Master wheel. Rebecca Kilbreath had that patience, and has amassed one of the larger collections of View-Masters and View-master reels.

When it was released in 1939, the View-Master was a window into the world for people who didn’t have TVs at home or couldn’t travel to faraway places. Kilbreath’s reels allow her a glimpse into places that no longer exist or images that wouldn’t be acceptable today, like a dolphin jumping through a hoop of fire at an amusement park in Canada.


Now Kilbreath scours ebay and antique stores hunting down old reels and the last few View-Masters she still needs for her collection. There were only around 30 models every produced and Kilbreath has 25.

Kilbreath, who is the Editor-in-Chief of Restaurant Development+ Design magazine, studied film and library sciences. She puts those two degrees to good use cleaning, storing and cataloging the 1,500 reels she’s collected onto an enormous, ever-growing spreadsheet that is open to all who share her passion for the toy.


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