Onondaga Historical Association announces the opening of a new exhibit, Sight Unseen: Stereographs from the OHA Collection, 1850-1930, on September 22, in the OHA museum’s second floor North gallery. Sight Unseen will run until April 1, 2013. There will be an opening reception for the exhibit on Friday, September 21 from 4-6 p.m. The exhibit, reception, and museum are free and open to the public.

Since OHA’s inception, it has gradually amassed a collection of over 2,000 stereographs, or stereo views, of Onondaga County and beyond. Archived in the research holdings, these 3-D photographs have never before been exhibited. Guest curator Colleen Woolpert offers an overview of the collection, providing insight into the little known history of stereo photography while taking us back into the past with the aid of exhibition stereoscopes. The exhibit includes Syracuse views taken by local photographers as well as nationally-marketed views, historic stereoscopes, books, and related 3D ephemera. It also looks at the combined industries of photography, publishing, manufacturing and marketing that contributed to the enormous popularity of the stereograph. The exhibit will be of interest to adults and children alike with historic viewing devices, books, and related 3-d ephemera.

Colleen Woolpert is an interdisciplinary artist who uses photography, video, installation, and performance to explore visual and psychological perception. Ms. Woolpert received her MFA from Syracuse University in August, 2011. She is also a designer, curator, writer, educator, and professional photographer. Woolpert has a personal history that encouraged her study of stereo viewing: while in fifth grade, her twin sister discovered that she lacked binocular vision, sparking Woolpert’s interest in examining questions of visual perception, especially 3D.

Her work includes SyraViews, two stereoscopes installed in Forman Park in Syracuse as a public artwork for the Connective Corridor project, which is a sponsor of Sight Unseen.

Researching stereographs for that project, Woolpert was introduced to the OHA stereograph collection. Executive Director Gregg Tripoli asked Woolpert to curate the first public exhibit of the OHA stereo views.

Stereographs were the original 3D experience. These roughly 3 ½ x 7 inch cards contained two side-by-side images that, when seen through a stereoscope, combined into one 3D image. Stereographs, developed at the dawn of photography, boast the longest history of any photographic format, and were a very popular entertainment in their day. Yet stereo views are today largely unknown.

“Exhibits of stereographs are rare because this was a handheld pastime, not intended for wall display. When they are included, museums tend to either present them as photography – with no viewing device – or as a digitized 3D experience, projected or shown on monitors without the original stereograph,” stated Woolpert. In 2009, frustrated by commercially-available viewers for exhibiting her own stereograph work, Woolpert began conceptualizing a solution that would showcase the actual stereographs while also providing a means to view them in 3D. Now in prototype, her product, “TwinScopes,” will have its debut at Sight Unseen.

Woolpert was originally planning an exhibit of local views, but after spending many hours with OHA’s collection of stereographs, she realized the potential for something greater. According to William Culp Darrah, author of Stereo Views, Syracuse is one of only a few U.S. cities that were extensively photographed in stereo. Additionally, the OHA collection contains almost every type of stereograph.  Because of this breadth, and the general lack of knowledge about stereograph, Woolpert expanded Sight Unseen into a comprehensive survey on the history, types, and functions of stereographs, the first photographic exhibition to do so, according to the artist. Woolpert’s goal is to broaden awareness of this important chapter in photographic history, and to make available to the public previously unseen historic 3D images of Syracuse.

The Museum at OHA is located at 321 Montgomery St., Syracuse, NY, 13202. Hours are Wednesday to Friday, 10-4, Saturday and Sunday, 11-4. Research center hours are Wednesday to Friday, 10-2, Saturday 11-3:30. For information, go to cnyhistory.org, or call (315) 428-1864, ext. 312.