Over five thousand 19th and early 20th century stereographs are in the Yosemite Museum. Stereographs are an early form of three-dimensional photography, and were very popular for documenting major events of the time. As the predecessor to the Polaroid it worked like this: you placed two almost identical photographs side by side, and when viewed through a stereoscope the photograph appeared three-dimensional.
Yosemite Conservancy’s funding will ensure these irreplaceable images are preserved through digitization. Also, much of the important details in these stereos are only visible when they are seen in a stereo viewer, and new enlarged images will not need a viewer.
In this new digital format these images will be available to many more people to explore Yosemite’s history.