National Stereoscopic Association

The inaugural rollout of our NSA stereoscopic lists has been a great success. The resources included massive lists of U.S. and International stereo photographers compiled by pioneer researcher Tex Treadwell; complete copies of the first volume of Stereo World; and an index for all Stereo World issues to the present. Our rollout also included Russell Norton’s wonderful Michael Burr comic genre stereo researches.

Building on success, we are posting new lists at an increased rate. The second iteration concentrates on stereoscopic views of the American West. Board member Dr. Jeremy Rowe has kindly allowed us to publish many of his lists of photographers of Arizona and New Mexico. Those who have read his publications such as his Stereographs of Territorial Arizona 1860-1930, know his research is impeccable. Jeremy also contributed lists for several Arizona photographers and publishers including: T. Smith Baldwin, Charles O. Farciot, Dudley P. Flanders, Globe Stereograph Co./Stereo Travel, Arthur Emon Hackett, keystone View Company (Arizona), Kolb Brothers, Olaf P. Larson, L. M. Melander, G. L. Rose, George H. Rothrock, Underwood & Underwood (Arizona), Carleton E. Watkins, and H. C. White Co. (See below for his work on E. O. Beaman.) For New Mexico, he presents a checklist of W. Henry Brown and Bennett & Brown stereographs.

Steve Hesselton has made available links to his extensive research on Carleton Watkins photographs, including both stereoviews and larger format images. The linkprovides access to a searchable database of Watkins captions and images, documents and related ephemera, and background information.

Thirdly, we are adding lists of stereographs taken on all four of the “Great Surveys” of the American West. Carol Johnson, author and former Curator of Photography at the Library of Congress, has provided checklists of Timothy H. O’Sullivan, Andrew J. Russell, and William Bell’s photographs taken on Clarence King’s Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel (1867-1869, 1872), and Lt. George M. Wheeler’s Explorations West of the One-Hundredth Meridian (1871-1874), as well as a facsimile of the original view list. The third survey is John Wesley Powell’s United States Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region (1871-1879) with photographs by Elias Olcott (“E. O.”) Beaman, John K. Hillers and James Fennemore. Both Jeremy Rowe and John Weiler transcribed data from the original manuscript by Powell listing the intended titles for all of the stereoviews. Jeremy focused on views of Arizona and added information collected from views. John also examined hundreds of original stereoviews but covered all areas. In doing so he noticed a number of inconsistencies and errors in their captions when compared to the original manuscript. Paula Fleming and Judith Luskey found that the original listing had been subsequently “edited”, or more correctly “falsified” by Powell, Hillers, and perhaps a few other hands. The original document, which is difficult to read, is in the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Ms. #1795-C. Thanks to Jeremy and John’s work, researchers no longer have to avail themselves of that document nor track down original stereographs to research captions. Some of John’s and Jeremy’s work on Beaman overlap, but given the complexity of the situation, they complement each other. Lastly we have added a facsimile of William Henry Jackson’s list of views made on the U. S. Geological Surveys of the Western Territories (the Hayden survey),1869-1875.