Many from the 60s and 70s have yellow or orange mounts, like these examples from one of the biggest (or the biggest) producer at the time, E. & H. T. Anthony. I’m showing the backs, as well. The bottom card is a later kind of issue, but from the same set of earlier negatives. Anthony views are usually numbered in the image or on the back label, and are well researched and catalogued.

E. & H.T. Anthony, Triphammer Falls, c. 1868

The 1860s and 70s were the glorious heyday of the stereoview, with thousands of photographers of all stripes producing between a dozen and several thousand different views, each. Many are extremely fine, well made, well preserved. Others have shown signs of improper washing or mounting and have faded. The cards by Bennett in Wisconsin are among the very best ever made, technically.

One sign of success (and ambition) was the introduction of taller cards. They had the same width (so they would fit in the viewers), but were “cabinet” or “imperial” sized, such as this nice Charles Bierstadt card. Many images on the larger cards (which required a larger camera) were also released on standard mounts. Note the two (left and right) don’t match tonally, one of many common minor flaws.

The West (as in the California view above) was a popular subject, especially along the railroad routes. Utah was just being developed.

Another (a little worn) from the same vicinity by a competing photographer showing a stereographer at work:

It is common to find anonymous, sometimes amateur views of good quality. Note the “news” aspect to this subject, and remember that people (and trains, horses, etc.) had to stop and pose for the pictures. Exposure times before 1880 were from 1/4 second to ten seconds in daylight. Interiors much longer, night not at all.

The backs are often illuminating, one (by S. R. Stoddard) with prices, a rare one. The other (an American Stereoscopic Co. issue) with a checklist, a common strategy to encourage finding (and buying) other views in that series.

And here’s a nice handcolored card (of an early oil drilling set-up in Pennsylvania). The photographer painted (with transluscent paints) right on the black and white albumen prints:

Here’s an interesting man, John Merrill, on his boat on the Pool. The drawing on the wall is his explanation that the earth had a civilization inside the sphere, as well as outside. His head is blurred (and so is the whirl of water) from the long exposure time.

For a full page on this curious/amazing fellow, click here!

A very tall “imperial” mount view in the Ausable Chasm in the Adirondacks, showing the photographer and his equipment. Until 1880, all the negatives were wet plate process, which meant the photographer had to coat a plate of plain glass, put it in the camera, take the picture, and finish developing, fixing, and washing the plate before the coating dried, ten to twenty minutes at most. All in the dark. So the equipment and chemicals, as well as a dark tent, had to be carried everywhere the photographer went.

Finally, it has to be mentioned that even as most practitioners faded away in the 1880s, some photographers from the Golden Age of the 1860s and 70s did continue to produce cards all the way up to the turn of the century. By then the big commercial companies mentioned on my main stereoview page dominated, and the last of the little guys folded. But, yes, there were exceptions. The growing number of serious amateurs made possible by the ease of the dry plate (in the 1880s), and by the growing market for cameras and papers, led a few to experiment with what was now a fifty year old genre, the stereograph. Here’s just one example, by a guy who even had nice cards made with his “Ramblings” series title. Note that you can see the “handmade” quality of the prints cut and glued onto the cardboard (and some glue staining at the edges).

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