the
night was spent in pittsburgh.
probably not the most poetic sounding city on the map, but after the excitement
of fallingwater and randomly running into friends, i needed some shuteye before
heading back to upstate new york. i still had niagara falls to see before
the next day was over. i did some laundry and flipped the tv between the weather
channel and comedy central before passing out in my annoyingly expensive room.
driving north through pennsylvania in the morning, i decided to stop at a
random rest stop for some random rest. as i perused the attractions brochures
for entertainment in the local area, the stereoscopic museum caught my eyes.
tucked away in meadville, a minuscule town of pennsylvania, was the johnson-shaw
stereographic museum.
holy crap! 3d photographs!
it was located in a tiny town that could only give another tiny town as a
point of reference. i drove through the andy griffith main streets of small
businesses and weathered storefronts before finding the picturesque house
that contains the johnson-shaw stereoscopic museum. this building once headquartered
the keystone view company - fine makers of stereoscopes (viewers) and stereoviews
(photographs) dating back to the 1890's. later, in the 1970's, when stereoscopic
photography went by the way of the unicorn, there were suddenly thousands
of homeless 3d photographs that needed a place to be archived. most of the
collection was donated to uc riverside, but several thousand still reside
in the johnson-shaw museum, where piles of stereoviews can be looked at through
keystone stereoscopes.
images ranging from japan in the early 1900's to world war i photographs are
filed in boxes and vintage wooden card catalogues, ready to be looked at.
the intimacy of seeing the photographs through the viewer and having the dimensionality
of each scene makes these artifacts of history much more compelling than just
text or regular photographs. it reminded me of watching captain eo for the
first time at disneyland and seeing all the little kids next to me grabbing
at the air, trying to catch what was in front of them.
other than the photographs themselves, there were several displays staffed
by vaguely creepy mannequins giving examples of stereoview and stereoscope
production. in one corner sat the printing press that was used to label each
photograph and another display showed how the original wooden stereoscopes
were assembled. machines with awesome names like "opthalmic telebinocular"
are peppered around the museum, demonstrating analog 3d technology being used
for driver's tests and vision exams.
after getting my fill of seeing double, i hopped back into the car and raced
towards rochester. i was hoping to be able to also make it to niagara falls
as well, but i'd have to break a couple speed limits on the way.
niagara falls has always cracked me up because it makes me think of incomprehensible
stunts with barrels and equally incomprehensible east coast honeymooners from
the 1950's. lo and behold, i get there, and a couple was getting married right
in front of the falls. they didn't look like they were from the 50's, but
i have my suspicions. sadly, there didn't appear to be anyone going down the
falls in a barrel.
ah well, you can't have everything.
(because then stephen wright would ask "where would you put it?") <05.22.04>
previous rant |newer rant | current weblog
all words (c) 2005 filmfatale industries