Scope and Content of Collection
Israel Stollman began building the present collection in 1957 when he was hired by Ohio
State University, 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 (mounted
photographic prints), 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
on the development of modern urban sites, it also encapsulates 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 photographs 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% 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 to 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 is comprised of 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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