KEYSTONE VIEW COMPANY.
World War I stereographic library, 1918-1921

Restrictions on Access

Unrestricted access.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Source

Unknown.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], World War I stereographic library, Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Processing

Processed by Erica Bruchko, November 11, 2005.

Biographical Note

The Keystone View Company was founded in 1892 by B. L. Singley, an amateur photographer from Meadville, Pennsylvania. The company grew to be the largest and most prominent publisher of stereoscopic photographs in the United States. Indeed, by the 1920s Keystone was the only major publisher of stereoscopic photographs in the world with offices in London, Paris, Sidney, Capetown, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. In 1918, Keystone became one of the only publishers permitted to photograph World War I battlefields and military operations. In 1939 competition from the motion picture and the radio industries led Keystone to cease regular production; however, the company continued to fill individual orders and manufacture stereoscopes for optometric purposes until the late 1960s.

The photographer of the World War I series was Andrew S. Iddings. Joseph Mills Hanson authored the text accompanying the photographs. Keystone first published the World War I collection in 1923 with several subsequent additions. The company produced four collections of various sizes (75, 100, 200 and 300) using the World War I stereoscopic photographs. Loke, Margarett. The World as it Was, New York: Summit Books, 1980; Darrah, William C. “The World of Stereographs,” Gettysburg: W.C. Darrah Publisher, 1977.

Publication Note

Companion publication: Joseph Mills Hanson, ed. The World through Telebinocular: A Visualized, Vitalized History of the Greatest Conflict of All the Ages, Meadville, Pa.: Keystone View Co., 1928.

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of approximately 300 black and white stereoscopic photographs depicting various World War I scenes between 1918 and 1921 including battlefields, soldiers and activities on the home front. Each slide includes a titled photograph, and a brief content description. The slides are loosely organized by theme and progress chronologically through assorted stages of the war and its immediate aftermath. Stereoscopic slides portray a wide variety of geographic locations including Germany, Italy, Turkey, the Balkans and the United States; however, military activities on the French warfront are most strongly represented, comprising over one-third of the collection. Within these locations, slides detail troops, city ruins, battlefield ruins, trenches, medical operations, troop provisioning, and victory parades and post-event recordings of key turning points in the war. Other interesting photographs include African-American soldiers returning home (288) and women at work on the front (264, 293, 294). In addition the collection documents various war machines such as airplanes, zeppelins, warships, U-boats and machine guns. Each slide is numbered according to its position in the series (1-300). In addition, the slides contain a six-digit photograph number. Slide number 19 is missing from the series. The collection is otherwise complete.

Two photograph-viewing stereoscopes accompany the collection. A monograph published with the stereoscopes entitled The World through Telebinocular: A Visualized, Vitalized History of the Greatest Conflict of All the Ages has been cataloged.

Arrangement Note

Stereoscopic photographs are arranged by publisher assigned number.