A History of Claremont in 100 Objects Blog Series: Viewmaster-Foster Rhodes Jackson Collection

A History of Claremont in 100 Objects: Viewmaster Lens-Foster Rhodes Jackson Collection

#2 "Viewmaster"

Artifact Description: A small pair of black Bakelite stereoscopic goggles, with a silver trim sticker labelled, “Pomona Tile MFG. Co.” and a collection of accompanying slides displaying various marketing images of tiles and countertops. 

Developed in the 1920s and first unveiled at the New York’s Worlds Fair in 1939, the Viewmaster is perhaps more famous as a children’s toy manufactured by Mattel, but the Viewmaster has a history that extends much further than play. Patented by William Gruber of Portland, the Viewmaster was initially produced by a company called Sawyer’s Photo Services which allowed a viewer to view a set of up to seven 3D images via the stereoscopic effect. By using a set of lenses that worked in tandem, two 2D still images could be projected in a way that would make them appear three-dimensional. In effect the Viewmaster gave an early form of virtual reality that is still in use today: the same principle underpins the effect used in 3D goggles for movies and television.  

The theme of the 1939-1940 World’s Fair in New York was centered on the theme of “Building the World of Tomorrow.” It is this context in which the Viewmaster is unveiled that helps to shape its cultural connotation. The World’s Fair in 1939 featured promises of a free, and liberal future. In his foreword to the Fair Guide, President of the Fair Grover Whalen wrote, “We convey to you the picture of the interdependence of man on man, class on class, nation on nation.” While the World’s Fair remained optimistic in nature, it still reflected an anxiety at the rising hostilities in Europe and in Asia and called for an urging for peace and cooperation between nations. But there were more problems for Sawyer Co. Gruber himself who invented the Viewmaster was scrutinized for his ties to Nazi Germany, which conflicted with the Sawyer Company's marketing that the Viewmaster was for educational and informative purposes. And although the Sawyer Company had intended to take advantage of the World's Fair as a place of culture and exposure, they were nevertheless introducing a tool that could equally be used to project colonial power, and for propagandistic purposes.

Like many other products and companies, both the Viewmaster and Sawyer Company would become part of the later war effort. During the Second World War, the Sawyer Company was contracted by the US Navy to produce lenses and reels that would be used for ship identification and for range estimation. Paper and film shortages meant that business was scarce, and prices were relatively high. The contract helped to protect the company and preserve the product line, allowing them to continue for several decades to come. 

The Garner House and Claremont Heritage has a set of Viewmaster goggles that once belonged to Claremont Architect, Foster Rhodes Jackson which was used to advertise different products from the Pomona Tile Company. Not uncommon in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, Viewmaster lenses were used to tell a visual story or place a viewer in a time and place where they could see the objects projected as if they were real. More than one billion total slides for Viewmaster lenses have been produced ranging from foreign and exotic landscape such as Egypt or Southeast Asia, to slides of dangerous and wild animals, and scenes from national landmarks and national parks. These images could either be seen under a positive light, or otherwise removed from their context, giving mixed effectiveness in providing a complete picture of the diversity of the world. The Viewmaster line of products experienced a boom in the post-war environment of the late 1940s where sets of slides would be sold that could either be projected or viewed using a pair of lenses that promised an exciting or captivating story or scene. Reels were made mostly with Kodak Kodachrome film which provided a high resolution and high-quality image often in full color. The film slides we have are very real in their clarity, rich in color and detail and feel very much like looking directly at the space they are meant to represent. 

The Viewmaster lenses rapidly became very popular. Slides were used by businesses, like the Pomona Tile Company for instance to show off their products quickly and easily, but they also were used to showcase travel, and leisure. Viewmaster slides would be traded between families showing where they had been and where they had vacationed, bought as souvenirs as a sign of prestige and adventure and to show to others that they had gone to far-flung and interesting places. Very similar to postcards, these slides reflected a mid-century infatuation with travel, enabled by the economic boom and the advent of the national highway system and the rise of the jet age. Sawyer’s originally marketed their product as an educational device but it came to occupy a different life as a form of easily transferable mass media that nevertheless shaped a smaller and more interconnected world, however it came to be interpreted. In someways though, they did represent the stated values of the World's Fair, and nevertheless may have come to present a greater level of understanding of others.

Acknowledgements:

A History of Claremont in 100 Objects is a blog series presented by Claremont Heritage and written and contributed to by its members. Based on the podcast A History of the World in 100 objects by the BBC and the British Museum, presented by former British Museum director Neil MacGregor. A History of Claremont in 100 Objects explores Claremont history through its material cultural legacies, placing objects important to the history and development of Claremont in larger relation to US and World History. 

About the author: 

My name is Cooper Crane. I am an archival intern with Claremont Heritage. I study history and anthropology with an emphasis on archaeology and the history of empire and environmental history at Pomona College in Claremont. I was born in Anaheim and have lived my whole life in Corona California, a city with a similar shared history to Claremont. I have degrees in history, anthropology and political science from Norco College California and am a certified California Climate Steward through the University of California Department of Natural and Agricultural Resources. I write to explore history through the material objects of history, and by exploring the elements of history that are unwritten. My current work at Claremont Heritage includes the curation of artifacts on display at the Garner House and the Claremont Packing House, the creation of artifact descriptions for our archives and contributing to A History of Claremont in 100 Objects. 

Citations:

Gruber, W. (Feb, 1940). Stereoscopic Viewing Device. 2,189,285. US Patent Office 

Monaghan, F. Editor. (1939) New York World’s Fair: The World of Tomorrow First Official Guide Book. Exposition Publications Inc. CRL | Holdings: Official guide book of the New York World's Fair, 1939. (oclc.org) 

Museum of Teaching and Learning. (2023) “View-Master.” View-Master - MUSEUM OF TEACHING AND LEARNING (motal.org) 

Rossen, J. (2017) “Chakka-Chhh: The Hidden History of View-Master” Mental Floss. Chakka-Chhh: The Hidden History of View-Master | Mental Floss 

Sell. M. A. (2022) “Focusing on View-Master History and Values” Antique Trader. View-Master history and value - Antique Trader