Seeing in stereo

Call it 3-D, Victorian style.

Decades before the advent of high-definition in movie theaters or even the creation of movie theaters themselves, photographs served as the recorded window into the rest of the world.

In addition to early photography methods, in the second half of the 19th century an early form of three-dimensional images emerged -- stereoscopic photography. In this method, two nearly identical images appear side by side and, when seen through a specially designed viewer, merge together optically to create an image that appears to have different levels of depth.

"Capturing Early Arkansas in Depth: The Stereoview Collection of Allan Gates" opened Dec. 12 in the Arkansas Made gallery of the Historic Arkansas Museum in downtown Little Rock and runs through April 5.

Hattie Felton, who graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in December, curated the exhibit of stereoscopic -- also known as stereographic -- images as a part of her thesis for a master's degree in public history.

"The exhibit gives us insight into 19th-century Arkansas," says Felton, who was earlier awarded an Arkansas Museum Association scholarship and has assisted the Historic Arkansas Museum staff in gathering, cataloging and storing artifacts, as well as installing exhibits, hanging shows, and leading visitors on tours of the museum's grounds.

"There are two types of stereoviews," Felton says. "The more mass-produced ones with images of landmarks and tourist attractions, and then there are the local views which were taken by the local photographers."

While the more traditional studio photographers of the Gilded Age did their work indoors, stereo photographers moved outdoors with their cameras, to capture life as it unfolded. In doing so, the resulting images offer a documentary-style feel.

More than a century later, those photographs affixed to thick cardboard have survived through the decades, providing a unique peek into another era.

"The stereoview was such an impressive way to see the world," says Bill Worthen, director of the Historic Arkansas Museum. "You could buy sets of stereoviews that toured you around the world to places in Europe and Asia as well as the rest of United States, but it was also just as valuable to see our own backyard."

In selecting the 22 images in the exhibit, Felton focused on three Arkansas-related themes -- the roots of tourism, the growth of the railroad and everyday life in the state.

One example in the exhibit is titled "Ladies Hour at Corn Springs," captured in Hot Springs in 1870 by the photographer J.F. Kennedy. The image depicts a group of women, in long Victorian dresses, lounging on a wooden pier and dangling their feet and legs in the water.

"It's just delightful," Worthen says.

Moving to another image, Worthen says, "And then there's this railroad bridge in Winslow that looks like it's made of sticks; it doesn't look like it could hold a train but obviously it did."

Gates, the owner of this photograph and the others on display, lives and works in Little Rock, where he practices environmental law and litigation with the Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates, & Woodyard firm. His collection, with more than 2,000 stereoscope images, includes hundreds of vintage Arkansas images captured by local photographers during the late 1800s, and about 25 antique viewers. He has been collecting the images and viewers for the last 25 years.

"He very graciously opened up his entire collection for me to choose the images from," Felton says.

The viewers displayed range from a simple inexpensive handheld model to larger and more elaborate tabletop examples. One is made of fine wood. Another folds into a smaller, more portable size.

As an outgrowth of a photography hobby, Gates first began making his own stereo images (much like a View-Master image) before becoming interested in the 19th-century images.

Approximately 500 stereoviews in his private collection are specific to Arkansas.

Gates says, "There are so many views available that a collector has to focus on a smaller number of specific subjects. The subjects I started with were Arkansas, the Brooklyn Bridge (especially scenes of the bridge under construction), the Johnstown [Pa.] flood of 1889, the Galveston [Texas] Hurricane of 1900, and 'ghost' images," in which a part of the image is intentionally or accidentally ghosted by movement. He's also collected some images of Washington, Canada, and his alma mater, Yale.

"Some of the images are extraordinarily beautiful photographs," Gates says. "The experience viewing a good stereoview is really immersive; you get a feeling you are really there. Many of the images are very interesting historical glimpses into the past."

And discovering that a view he has collected includes special historical context makes it all the more intriguing.

"I have a stereoview of a group of men and boys that is titled 'The Indignation Meeting.' Eventually I discovered that this group was a mob that conducted public protests and ultimately threatened to hang Benjamin Kelley, the first Superintendent of the Hot Springs Reservation, after he closed the paupers' mud pit bath on Hot Springs Mountain at the request of the Bathhouse operators," Gates explains. "At Kelley's urgent request, troops were sent in from Dardanelle to restore peace."

Gates buys most of his views and viewers from auctions and sometimes estate and garage sales. "The variety of stereoviewers demonstrates that the interest was shared by the wealthy and those of modest means alike," he says.

The rarest Arkansas-related views in Gates' collection are the ones produced in very small number to capture a specific event, such the aftermath of a tornado in Fayetteville.

And then there are those that remain shrouded in mystery.

"One that I would really like to know more about is an image of a woman seated in front of a tent in 'Ral City,' a paupers' encampment on Hot Springs Mountain," Gates says. "I bought this stereoview from the collection of a nationally renowned collector who was meticulous about documentation. He was convinced that the woman was a prostitute. I think it is equally likely that she was a charitable Florence Nightingale type who was ministering to the impoverished invalids in the encampment. But it is certainly startling to see a woman of that period in such a scene."

Gates says his hobby is not one shared by many others. He says there are probably fewer than a dozen serious stereoview collectors in Arkansas and just a few hundred across the nation, not including museums and historical institutions.

Style on 01/13/2015