About This Image

Stereo-viewers were already outmoded when this intriguing series was published in the "Hartford Courant." Still, they weren't a thing of the past: the paper reported that in 1939, "2000 new stereoscopes, in addition to hundreds that are probably stored away in attics and old desks" existed in the city. Their bold idea in the wake of renewed enthusiasm: to publish in the paper "depthphotos" of points of interest, which their readers would cut out and mount for viewing in their own stereo-viewers. Included in this lot are 15 views: nine already mounted (ostensibly by readers), and six more which appear in the pages of the newspaper itself—also included in this lot. Subjects include elevated views of the city and harbor from the top of the Traveler's Tower on Main Street, St. Francis Hospital, the Armistice Day Parade of Nov. 11, 1939, and the Aetna Life Building. A contest was held for readers to decide on the imagery.