Getting a New View: How To Build Your Own Stereoscope

A blog post from Museum Educator Sean Schumacher. To read more posts from Sean, click HERETo read more education related posts, click HERE.

Hello Folks,

Here in the Education Department at the Jewish Museum of Maryland we’ve come up with a fun and creative way to construct a Stereoscope.  What’s a Stereoscope, you say?   Well, a stereoscope is a mechanical tool used to view images that are side-by-side depicting a scene as seen independently by the right eye and left eye.  These types of images are known as stereoscopic.

The first stereoscope was invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1838. Image via.
The first stereoscope was invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1838. Image via.
The Stereoscope that you may be more familiar with and the two that we have in our exhibit  Passages Through the Fire Jews and the Civil War look more like this one.  Image via.
The Stereoscope that you may be more familiar with and the two that we have in our exhibit Passages Through the Fire Jews and the Civil War look more like this one. Image via.

Stereoscopes brought the images to life.  Giving the viewer a sample of the subject in 3D.  What we’ve done is somewhat modernized the device using simple and inexpensive materials. Check out the images below to construct your very own! You can also download the instructions as a PDF HERE: Stereoscope How To.

StereoscopeHowTo

StereoscopeHowTo

StereoscopeHowTo

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Education

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