Gems of American Scenery, Consisting of Stereoscopic Views among the White Mountains. With Descriptive Text

This book comes equipped with the nineteenth-century version of virtual-reality goggles. It is built around twenty-four Artotypes (printed reproductions of photographs) that show famous views in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. But in a twist on a common genre, those pictures are presented here as stereo views, rather than simple illustrations; the publisher has even included a convenient stereo viewer in the binding. The idea of armchair travel was increasingly popular in the middle decades of the century, and a book like this, which took advantage of several new technologies all at once—including printed photographs and 3-D effects—must have seemed exceedingly up to date.