Scope and Content of Collection
Israel Stollman began building the present collection in 1957 when he was hired by Ohio
State University and charged with establishing a new graduate program in city and regional
planning. He intended the collection to be used as a teaching and study tool in the broadest
sense of the word, and continued to add to it throughout his career. In addition to using
the collection for teaching urban planning, Stollman often used the perspectival qualities
of stereographs to convince his private clients of particular design solutions.
Comprising over 9,100 items, the majority of which are card stereographs (pairs of mounted
photographs of the same image taken from two slightly different perspectives), the focus of
the collection is views of cities and urban areas, especially of the United States. As such,
the collection is not only a significant resource for the development of modern urban sites,
but it also encapsulates the history of the production of stereographs which flourished from
the 1850s through the 1930s. Disseminated widely for both personal entertainment and as
teaching aids, stereographs were influential conveyors of information that helped form
popular perceptions about a region, an object, or another culture. Their images were often
reinforced by the texts printed on their versos which usually conveyed a specific cultural
bias.
The individual stereographs in Series I form the core of the collection. Stollman collected
these stereographs individually or in small groups. Stereographs of North America form
almost half of this series. The cities of New York, Chicago, and Washington D.C. are
prominently represented. Major European cities and sites, especially those of France,
Germany, Great Britain, and Italy are also well-represented. Broadly speaking, over 95
percent of the stereographs deal with urban themes. Other subjects including landscapes and
rural views, ancient sites, famous personalities, interiors, railroads, views of monuments
and works of art, views of significant events, and genre scenes and representations of local
peoples can be found within the individual countries represented in the collection.
Views of national and international expositions ranging from the Crystal Palace (London,
1851) to the Century of Progress Exposition (Chicago, 1933-1934) are also present. These
stereographs help to reinforce the relationship of the design of world's fairs and the
development of urban planning as a profession.
Nearly every major publisher of stereographs is represented in this series including the
American Stereoscopic Company; B. W. Kilburn Company (Kilburn Brothers); Breveté; E. &
H. T. Anthony; Ferrier et Soulier; H. C. White Co.; Griffith & Griffith; Keystone View
Company; Léon et Lévy; London Stereoscopic Company; Stereo-Travel Co.; Underwood &
Underwood; Universal Photo Art Company; and the Universal Stereoscopic View Company.
Photographers of note include Charles Bierstadt; Adolphe Braun; Abel Briquet; Giacomo
Brogi; Francis Frith; Frank Mason Good; B.W. Kilburn; Eadweard Muybridge; Alfredo Noack;
Robert Rive; Giorgio Sommer; James Valentine (Valentine & Sons); and George Washington
Wilson. Approximately ten percent of the views are unique, that is taken by amateur or
little-known photographers. These include early European views and American views by
small-town photographers.
Series II comprises boxed sets, that is stereographs purchased as sets and usually sold
housed in special boxes. In addition to a Keystone View Company, Tour
of the World set, there are sets for individual countries, a set of stereographs
documenting medical conditions, small format sets, and sets of film positive
stereographs.
Small groups of glass format stereographs and lantern slides representing a variety of
countries are found in Series III. Most of these items are unsigned, but stereograph makers
include Ferrier & Soulier and Brevité. A number of the glass lantern slides are
hand-colored. Stollman collected a variety of stereoviewers ranging from free-standing
pedestal viewers to handheld viewers to compact collapsible viewers; these objects are found
in Series IV. Some of the viewers were made to accompany the stereoscopes produced by a
specific publisher and are of a more mass-produced nature, while others, especially the
nineteenth-century models made by opticians and cabinet makers as parlor pieces, exhibit the
qualities of small pieces of finished cabinetry.
Finally, Series V comprises various materials loosely related to stereographs such as a
printed sheet of stereoviews, price lists, and steorograph club literature.
Arrangement
Organized in five series:
Series
I: Individual stereographs, 1850-1960;
Series II: Boxed sets, 1890-1970s;
Series III: Glass stereographs
and lantern slides, 1860-1930;
Series IV: Stereoviewers,
1860-1979;
Series V: Prints, objects and
ephemera, 1893-1977, undated.
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