Rare stereograph images from the mid-to-late 1800s and early 1900s will show industries, cities, landscapes and everyday domestic life.
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Stereoscopic images from 19th century Portland will be the star of the show at Portland Unlocked, Greater Portland Landmarks’ spring fundraiser on June 23.
The event will be held at the Masonic Temple, at 415 Congress St. in Portland.
Features will include “Historic Maine in 3D,” a presentation by Bernard Fishman, director of the Maine State Museum. Rare stereograph images from the mid-to-late 1800s and early 1900s will show industries, cities, landscapes and everyday domestic life.
A reception with Fishman afterward will be held in the temple’s billiards room, which features crystal chandeliers, leather couches and, of course, billiards tables.
31,000 images
Fishman has been the director of the Maine State Museum since 2012. He previously worked as an Egyptologist at Chicago House, the University of Chicago’s field mission in Luxor, Egypt, and has directed five history museums in five different states.
Among his articles and publications, “A Story of Maine in 112 Objects” surveys the Maine State Museum collections and uses historical items to tell 12,000 years of Maine’s history. With an interest in early photography, he has gathered a personal collection of over 31,000 original images from the 19th and early 20th centuries, among the largest of its kind in the U.S., according to a news release.
With Dr. George Mutter, professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School, Fishman uses modern techniques to show the images as 3-D projection shows, which he presents to a variety of audiences worldwide.
What is a stereoview?
In the mid-19th century, photographers began capturing scenes with paired lenses set slightly apart, mimicking the distance between human eyes. Viewed through a handheld stereoscope, the two images merged into a single picture with depth and dimension.
Stacks of stereoview cards and a companion viewer became standard fixtures in middle-class parlors across America and Europe.
After World War I, flat photography, film and eventually television pushed the stereoscope aside. Collections were dispersed, boxed sets discarded. But the images survived and the technology to show them properly has caught up.
Fishman will project his images using the “anaglyph” method: attendees will receive modern 3D red-and-cyan glasses and see scenes from Maine's past reconstructed in three dimensions.
For more information, visit the Portland Unlocked page on the Greater Portland Landmarks website.
