Selling stereoscopy, 1890–1915: Penny arcades, automatic machines and American salesmen

Abstract

One of the most popular of all nineteenth‐century optical recreations was the stereoscope. Most previous studies, however, have focused on its initial popularity in the 1850s and 1860s, downplaying the fact that stereoscopy enjoyed a significant revival between 1890 and 1914 to the extent that its diffusion in schools, homes and libraries was probably at its greatest. This article explores the way the revival in stereoscopy was fostered by a significant updating of the marketing, distribution and exhibition of stereographs in both public venues and the home. Through examining how large American producers like Underwood and Underwood employed travelling salesmen in Britain and America, it particularly demonstrates the importance of consumption in provincial and rural areas. Underwood’s stereoscopic tours emphasised the stereoscope as a form of rational recreation; however, this domestic consumption was complemented by a proliferation of penny‐in‐the‐slot devices during the 1890s in penny arcades that offered a variety of more salacious visual pleasures. The second half of the article traces the numerous prosecutions that took place around the turn of the century for the exhibition of indecent stereographs in penny arcades, comparing them to the moral panic aroused by the parallel development of the mutoscope.

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