0.2 Egypt through the stereoscope: stereography and virtual travel

Stereography and travel

According to stereography’s advocates, stereographs allowed people to “tour” foreign lands without theexpense and hassle of actually going there. Moreover, virtual tourists could look at the sites as often and as long as theyliked, and three-dimensional imaging added to the sense of reality. As Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, “the sights which men risk theirlives and spend their money and endure sea-sickness to behold,--the view of Nature and Art which makes exiles of entire families forthe sake of a look at them, and render ‘bronchitis’ and dyspepsia, followed by leave of absence, endurable dispensations to so manyworthy shepherds,--these sights, gathered from Alps, temples, palaces, pyramids, are offered you for a trifle, to carry home withyou, that you many look at them at your leisure, by your fireside, with perpetual fair weather, when you are in the mood, withoutcatching cold, without following a valet-de-place, in any order of succession,--from a glacier to Vesuvius, from Niagra toMemphis,--as long as you like, and breaking off as suddenly as you like” (38-39). Not only does stereography make “travel” morecomfortable and convenient, but, Holmes implies, it also allows the viewer in a sense to “own” the scene, to place it into a viewer andstand gazing over it (Fowles 91). Note that Holmes uses Egyptian sites such as the pyramids and Memphis as examples of importantplaces for travelers to experience, revealing the significance of Egypt as a place for virtual travel.

By making images of foreign cultures available cheaply and with seeming realism, stereographs enabledmass “virtual” tourism. Stereographs could serve as mementoes of travel, or substitutes for it. Among the most popular locations forarmchair travelers to venture via stereography were the Holy Land and Egypt, since these places had special religious significanceand featured important archaeological sites, some recently excavated. As William Darrah notes, “A steady stream of stereoviews depicting the classic antiquities of Rome, Naples, Athens, Egypt and the Holy Land, together with those of the cathedrals,public buildings and palaces of the tourist centers of Europe provided mementos of the journey and vicarious adventure for thosewho had to remain at home” (17). Companies organized stereograph collections into “tours,” capturing the major sites and simulatingtravel to them. Stereographs helped to define the public’s understanding of foreign countries and expectations of what travelthere would be like. As Steven Hoelscher argues, “Acquiring photographs gives shape to travel as it informs what the viewershould see, how it should be seen, and when it should be seen--all in a matter-of-fact and seemingly "unmediated" way” (549). Just asguidebooks offered a mediated journey through foreign countries, so stereographs presented travel from carefully chosen perspectives.Sometimes working with “experts” on the countries represented, stereograph photographers and publishers determined what sites tophotograph, what perspective to take, and how to frame the shot.