Index

The following are a presentation of a set of fifty stereo views of the Sears, Roebuck, & Co headquarters in Chicago, made around 1906. The set was sold in a nice hinged-lid case for 35 cents (50 with stereoscope).

The viewer should be aware that the stereo images have been altered from the originals. The two halves have been transposed, the left image moved to the right, and vice-versa. This has been done so that those without a stereoscope viewer may enjoy the views in illusory 3-D via the cross-eye method. By slowly crossing one's eyes until the left and right images overlap and merge, you will be able to see the 3-D image the same as if you were using a stereoscope. Although this may offend the purists, it is more my intention that as many people as possible be able to enjoy these long-unseen stereo images than it is to show off a collection of antique parlor ephemera.

There is some evidence that the photos may have been taken by Fred Conley and James Drake, vice president and general manager, respectively, of the Conley Camera Company. The Conley Camera Company had begun serving as Sears' exclusive supplier of cameras a couple of years earlier. (Indeed, one of the stereo cards from this series is used in later catalogs as an example of an image made with a Conley Model XVIII stereo camera.) It is known that Conley and Drake traveled to Sears headquarters in Chicago in October, 1906, shortly before this series was released. However, unless it was an especially warm October, the light clothing and lush foliage depicted seem out of place for late autumn in the upper midwest. Whenever the photographs were taken, it was certainly no earlier than April, 1906, for that's when Sears' grand new administration building opened.


Click here to begin the tour

 

Banner