When you browse the online Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection, you might see what look like the exact same historical photographs placed side by side. These are stereograph images, which were produced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to create a three-dimensional image when viewed through a device called a stereoscope.
Stereoscopes viewers contain two prismatic lenses and a wooden stand to hold a stereograph card. When viewers looked through the lenses at the photographs, it created an optical illusion that made it appear as if they were looking at one 3D image. Though they had been around since the 1830s, a patent-free handheld version of the stereoscope appeared in the 1860s, making them more widely accessible.
Many stereographs of historical events and exotic locations were mass produced for a global audience, but photography studies in cities around the world produced images more familiar to locals. Knoxville was no exception, and studios such as McCrary and Branson sold cards featuring images of downtown Knoxville landmarks, Norris Dam and other East Tennessee locales.
The McClung Collection holds hundreds of these images, some of them almost a century and a half old. The C.A. Wayland Collection (https://cmdc.knoxlib.org/digital/collection/p16311coll1) is a particularly fascinating source of more than 300 stereographs. Columbus Alexander Wayland was a carpenter who created custom staircases for the D.M. Rose Lumber Company, and was also an amateur photographer. He produced images of Prohibition Parades in Knoxville, the 1910 Appalachian Exposition, the Gay Street Bridge and Old Gray Cemetery.
Stereoscopes were the precursors to the View-Master, a less expensive and easy to use plastic toy that was popular from the 1950s up to the early 2000s. Stereoscopes can also be viewed as precursors to virtual reality headsets that are common today. While technology has changed radically over the years, this early foray into 3D pictures enchanted the young and old alike for more than 100 years. That history is preserved at the McClung Collection, and available to view online.
1. “View looking north over Gay Street Bridge towards downtown Knoxville”
The exact date of this image is unknown, but the paddle steamer Annabell King,visible in the photograph, first launched in May of 1909, very modern with its 200-horsepower boiler, electric light plant, search light and steam calliope. Two years later, notices for Tennessee Rivers excursions by UT students and church groups on the craft appeared in the Sentinel. By August of 1911, however, the Annabel Lee had been stripped of its excursion equipment and was slated to become a freighter for a company operating down river. In all likelihood, this photo was taken during one of the boat’s excursions in 1911.
2. View in Gray’s Cemetery, November 29, 1906
Old Gray Cemetery was, of course, once new. The second oldest cemetery in Tennessee, the first burial occurred on July 15, 1851, following William Martin’s fatal injury from canon fire during a July 4 celebration on Asylum Hill. Named for English poet Thomas Gray, it would be the resting place for many of Knoxville’s most prominent citizens. New Gray Cemetery, on Western Avenue, was established in 1892, but when this photo was taken in 1906, the name Old Gray had apparently not yet stuck, as evinced by Wayland’s labeling it as simply “Gray’s Cemetery.” The identity of the woman in the photograph is unknown, but the photo was taken not far from the Broadway cemetery gate, as the Moose family monument sits to the right after one enters. Byron Eugene Moose passed away at the age of one on October 8, 1900, with his father, a travelling salesman, dying 20 days later. It’s possible the woman in the photograph is Rosalene Lavinia Harris Moose, the widowed mother, planting flowers on their graves.
3. Appalachian Exposition, Night View Administration Building, Sept. 12-Oct. 12, 1910
Wayland published more than 100 stereograph cards of photographs taken at the 1910 Appalachian Exposition. The event, which ran from September 12 to October 12 at Chilhowee Park, was a massive undertaking meant to draw attention to southern Appalachia’s progress as part of the “New South.” It was a major success, and another exposition was held the following year.
Wayland’s stereographs alone offer a tantalizing view of the variety of sites one could take in throughout the month-long event, including the park’s two lakes, the midway, amusement park rides, exhibits, restaurants, railroad, artwork, animals, parades, visitors and multiple views of the impressive Administration Building, such as this nighttime view of it with added pink tinting.
4. Temperance Parade, 1907
The temperance movement had been in full swing for a while when Wayland took this photo of a parade in 1907. Anti-alcohol sentiment was popular throughout the United States, and by this time Tennessee had largely banned saloons in all but a few cities. As a vote on the Pendleton Act prohibiting saloons was brought before Knoxvillians in March,1907, frequent demonstrations, parades and rallies in its favor occurred throughout downtown. Women and children were predominant in the events, as was the employment of the American flag, equating abstinence from alcohol with patriotism. Note the “SAVE YOUR SONS” sign the woman is holding while standing in the wagon in the left of the photo. Wayland produced at least 16 of these cards for sale, giving an idea of just how popular this subject was to the public.
Article by Eric Dawson
Photography by The Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection
Originally published in West Knoxville Lifestyle
ABOUT THE MCCLUNG HISTORICAL COLLECTION
The Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection is the local history and genealogy department of Knox County Public Library. Signature collections include Thompson Brothers Collection, Woman Suffrage, Mary U. Rothrock Collection, Catherine Wiley Collection, and many others. Join us online at cmdc.knoxlib.org/digital/
This article is written in conjunction with the Knoxville History Project. Dawson serves on the KHP board.
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