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Underwood & Underwood Glass Stereograph Collection, 1895-1921

Notes: Underwood & Underwood was established at Ottawa, Kansas by brothers Elmer and Bert Underwood, 1882. Originally they were distributors in the West for eastern photographers' stereographs, but they began publishing stereographs in 1890. They established an educational unit in 1895 and became a leader in armchair travel photography. Although the firm was highly successful in marketing sets of stereographs for a number of years, they eventually decided to concentrate on non-stereoscopic photographs and sold their glass stereo collection to a competitor, the Keystone View Co., in 1912 and 1921. The photographs in this collection represent the material which Keystone did not purchase

Summary: The major part of the collection, series 1-4, contains nearly 28,000 glass plates, including original stereoscopic negatives, interpositives, and both negative and positive non-stereoscopic plates used to produce lantern slides and paper prints. The photographs were taken all over the world. The majority are from the Underwood & Underwood active files, but plates from other publishers are also included. Series 5 is a small collection of paper stereographs. Series 6 contains 4 Underwood & Underwood descriptive sales catalogs and 1 H. C. White & Co. catalog (numbers on the Underwood plates correspond to the numbers on catalog captions). Series 7 is apparatus--four stereoscopes

Photographers represented include Herbert G. Ponting and Clarence W. White. A photographer and/or publisher named J. J. Killela is also represented

Cite as: Underwood & Underwood Glass Stereograph Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Date: 1895

1895-1921

1890-1930

1890-1900

1900-1950

publisher: Underwood & Underwood

photographer: Ponting, Herbert George 1870-1935

publisher: Underwood, Bert 1862-1943

Underwood, Elmer 1859-1947

photographer: White, Clarence W

publisher: Killela, J.J

H.C. White Co

American Stereoscopic Co

Local number: 270586 (NMAH Acc.)

Data Source: Archives Center - NMAH

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Anne E. Peterson Stereograph Collection, ca. 1893-1904

Notes: See standard sources for historical information on stereograph production in the United States

Ms. Peterson is a photographic historian who was manager for the Archives Center's Underwood & Underwood Videodisc Project and assisted with the Donald H. Sultner-Welles Collection. She has held curatorial positions with the Library of Congress, the Louisiana State Museum, and the De Golyer Library, Southern Methodist University

Summary: 5 stereographs published by American Stereoscopic Co., 5 by H. C. White Co., 7 miscellaneous views by Underwood & Underwood, and 5 images of the "sugar levee," New Orleans, from the "Cotton Series" (3 by Underwood & Underwood, 1 by Strohmeyer & Wyman, and 1 by Keystone View Co.), and a pamphlet, "Light on Stereographs," copyright Underwood & Underwood, 1902

Other images include comic scenes, including several concerning courtship, one from the "French maid" or cook series, two black stereotype images, a portrait of President McKinley and his Cabinet, views of Brussels, the Vatican Library (Rome), the "Bavarian Highlands," Berlin, Chartres, and Central Park (New York). Identified photographers are R. Y. Young and Edw. Clarke