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If you can't get
your children to read history, try this. Let them wear 3-D
glasses and look at the pictures in this book. They'll learn
as much about the Civil War as if they had read The Life
of Billy Yank and Johnny Reb--twice.
They will also
learn that 3-D glasses aren't just a fad from 1950s monster
movies. They were used a hundred years before that to view
stereographic photographs. What's a stereograph?
Zeller tells us
that stereographic photographs were popular from about the
beginning of the Civil War to the mid-1920s. By using a camera
with two lenses, each lens captured a slightly different
aspect of the same subject. When the final image is viewed
with 3-D glasses (a set comes with Zeller's books), the photo
appears three-dimensional.
This is author
Bob Zeller's second book featuring stereographic photography
of the Civil War. The first was published three years ago
and he did not intend to write a sequel. What prompted the
second edition was his discovery of several private collectors
with previously unknown stereographic Civil War views. In
addition to Civil War scenes, many are photos of everyday
people and events.
But photography
was a newly developing business, and the photographers made
what would sell. When the war began, photographers like Mathew
Brady and Alexander Gardner marketed 3-D war scenes to the
civilian population. They became so popular that almost every
photo of the Civil War era originally was made as a 3-D stereographic
image. These include Zeller's newly found photos of Brady's
3-D scenes of Antietam and other battle sites; a previously
unknown photo collection of African American soldiers; and,
stereographs by little known Southern photographers Osborne
and Durbec. These collections include photos of the interior
of an African American church, and various scenes of Southern
plantation, camp, and city life.
The most remarkable
are the colorized stereographs. The best of these pre-Ted
Turner photos were done by the E. and H. T. Anthony Company
of New York, the premier stereographic photographer and marketer
of the time. This company also devised the "instantaneous" camera,
which enabled action shots by using a mechanical shutter.
Few of us today
could afford our own stereograph collections, but this book
is a good substitute. The photographs are beautifully presented.
Zeller uses a period-type of font for each chapter heading,
and the text is written so that your kids won't even know
they're getting a lesson in history, photography, marketing,
and human nature all at the same time.
The Civil War mystique
is a direct result of its photographic legacy. It gives the
Civil War an aura and substance which continues to carry
its meaning and message forward into modern American memory.
Zeller adds to the mystique with these newly published stereograhic
pictures. They help us imagine what our fellow Americans
experienced, sense what these people might have been like,
and better understand the kind of people they were. Even
if your children don't read the text, they'll get the message.
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