Over the past few days, stereos taken from Underwood & Underwood’s ‘Life of Christ’ series have featured in the @Pressphotoman account on Instagram.
The posts climaxed on Easter Sunday with this 3D portrayal of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and its verso text.
The history of this stereo set is intriguing.
According to William C. Darrah’s ‘The World of Stereographs’ (1977, p. 187), twelve tissues illustrating the life of Jesus were published in France in the late 1860s.
He states that these paintings were copied as stereographs and then repeatedly reproduced as views in the decades that followed.
Darrah also adds that “great quantities of these were sold in the United States until 1915.”
The set in my collection features 24 scenes published by Underwood & Underwood (U&U) starting with ‘The Nativity’ and ending with ‘The Ascension.’
They came into my collection almost by accident, arriving unadvertised together with a wooden U&U ‘Perfecscope’ viewer that I purchased several years ago when my interest in stereoscopic photography was starting.
If you know more about the ‘Life of Christ’ stereo set and have seen examples produced by other publishers, please use the comments box below.
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