Stereograph by James Elliott entitled 'Mary, Queen of Scots, A Prisoner'. Great Britain, ca. late 19th century.
Dimensions
Size of card height: 8.5cm
Width: 17.4cm
Gallery Label
Making It Up: Photographic Fictions (2018)
As in today’s period dramas, the sets, props and costumes used to stage this moment from history would have transported viewers to another time and place. The experience would have been particularly immersive when seen in three dimensions through a stereoscope.
Marta Weiss
Label for 'Making It Up: Photographic Fictions' (3 May 2013 - 12 January 2014):
Probably John Reynolds
The Angel's Whisper
James Elliott (1835–1903)
Mary Queen of Scots. A Prisoner
Unknown photographers
The Captive
Woman selling apples from a basket
Probably Martin Laroche (1810–86)
Astounding Apparition!
Unknown photographer
Frogs playing pool and smoking clay pipes
About 1860
A stereograph is a pair of photographic images of the same subject taken from slightly different angles. This gives the illusion of a three-dimensional image when viewed through a stereoscope. These optical devices occupied a place in the drawing room, as a television might today, providing entertainment that was both amusing and instructive. Stereographs were the most popular outlet for staged and narrative photography in the 19th century.
Stereographs
Museum nos. 107, 113, 124, 127, 147-1957, 679-1943
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