When I saw the theme announced for this week's Sepia Saturday, "May Day Around the May Pole" I knew I had the perfect photo. When I picked up this stereograph some time ago in an antique store I had no idea what I would ever do with it and voila! the perfect opportunity just arose.
This photo was published by Webster & Albee, Publishers, Rochester, NY and according to O. Henry Mace, Collecter's Guide to Early Photographs (2nd Edition) 1999 this particular stereograph is probably quite worthless. A stereograph is a "pair of photographs, usually taken with a binocular camera, mounted for three-dimensional viewing in a stereoscope." The concept was conceived by Charles Wheatstone, a British physicist, and introduced in 1851, the peak years being 1858 - 1905 and literally "thousands of theme series were produced." In this particular case the subject is quite ordinary and the corners are damaged so the photo is of no value, except of course for this week's Sepia Saturday!
