Northern Michigan University's Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center presents a "UP3D" display of 60 large three-dimensional stereograph images from the collection of Jack Deo of Marquette. Admission is free and 3D glasses will be provided. All of the images were taken in the late 19th century in communities and locations across the Upper Peninsula by some of the region's best-known photographers.
The display will run through Aug. 27 in the Beaumier Center's gallery at the corner of Seventh Street and Tracy Ave. on NMU's campus. It is an expanded version of an exhibition the center mounted in 2011. The images feature mining and other industrial operations, cityscapes, fires, Native Americans and slices of life from the 1860s to the 1890s. Communities featured will be Ironwood, Sault Ste. Marie, Houghton, Marquette, Escanaba and others.
The exhibition will also include stereographic cameras, viewers and equipment on loan from Deo and Don Balmer of Marquette. These will include vintage ViewMaster viewers and cameras from the 1940s through the 1990s. In addition, there will be stereograph cameras and equipment from the late 19th and early 20th century on display.
The concept that you can use two slightly off drawings to create a three-dimensional effect is older than photography itself. With the advent of photography in the late 1830s and early 1840s, the idea of using early photographs to create 3D images was embraced quickly.
Over time, an industry in 3D images on cards and slides developed, and photography studios around the globe sold them as souvenirs or as volumes. Photography studios around the U.P. started doing this as early as the 1860s, and these images became a popular way to promote the region's unique natural surroundings.
For more information on the exhibition and the Beaumier Center, visit www.nmu.edu/beaumier or call 906-227-3212.