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Photographs
Black History ➔ Stereoview, Cotton Gin

Identifier:

2022.9.46

Description:

This stereoview contains outdated, discriminatory, and/or potentially harmful language regarding slavery.  

This stereoview, also called a stereograph or stereocard, was created by the Keystone View Company and is card number V23235, titled "Machine that Separates Lint Cotton from Seed". The V at the beginning of the number indicates the images were originally owned by Underwood & Underwood prior to Keystone acquiring the company between 1915 and 1921 and the number 27 at the center top on the front represents its 27th place in a set. The back of the card contains information about the invention of the cotton gin and its effect on slavery.  

This stereoview was previously part of a collection at the Grand Rapids Public Library, indicated by the stamps on the back of the card. 

Date:

circa 1910

Materials:

Cardboard, Paper

Dimensions:

3.5" h 7" w

Current Location Status:

In Storage

Collection Tier:

Tier 3

Source:

Gift of Grand Rapids Public Library

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Related Entities:

Grand Rapids Public Library (donor)
Alternate names: GRPL Keystone View Company (creator)
The Keystone View Company (1892 - 1972) was started in Meadville, Pennsylvania by B.L. Singley. In 1892, the French Creek overflowed its banks and flooded Meadville. Singley photographed the damage, developed multiple prints of 30 negatives, and pasted them on cardboard mounts bearing the name of Keystone View Company. By 1895 the company had issued approximately 700 different views. In 1898 Keystone began making and selling stereoscopes.

In 1905 Keystone View Company began its Educational Department, selling views and glass lantern slides to schools throughout the country. They also produced lantern slide projection equipment. Selling stereoviews and lantern slides to schools was a field pioneered by Underwood & Underwood, and for several years Underwood and Keystone were competitors for the growing educational market. According to the 1953 Keystone Sales Manual the more aggressive sales methods and the more progressive editorial policies of the Keystone View Company soon made it the acknowledged leader in the work, and Underwood & Underwood decided to give up the contest.

Over the years hundreds of educational sets were marketed to teach geography, social studies, science, history, and reading. They even produced and sold a special line of stereoview sets for medical students. Lantern slides and stereoviews were often combined in sets, with one side of a stereoview printed on the glass so that a two-dimensional image could be projected on a screen for the entire class to see. Students could then take turns viewing the three-dimensional version of the photos with the stereoviews and one of the many stereoscopes that came with the set.

In 1936 B.L. Singley retired as the president of the Keystone View Company. He died on November 15, 1938, at the age of 73. After Singley's retirement two long-time Keystone employees, Charles E. Crandall and George E. Hamilton, purchased all of the Keystone View Company stock. For the next 20 years, Crandall and Hamilton would run Keystone, and all three departments would continue operation. On November 19, 1956, Keystone President Charles E. Crandall died in his office. George E. Hamilton became the sole shareholder, as well as the president, of the Keystone View Company. Hamilton died on May 15, 1962.^[11] In 1963 Keystone was purchased by Mast Development Company of Davenport, Iowa. The company was owned by Gifford Mast and John Niemeyer. 

As a subsidiary of Mast Development Company, Keystone produced telebinoculars, eye training products, and overhead projectors. In 1972 Gifford Mast closed down the Meadville manufacturing site, although the name of Keystone View Company continues to be used on eye training equipment.[13] In 1978, the company's records and inventory of negatives, weighing more than 30 tons, were donated to the UCR/California Museum of Photography at the University of California Riverside, where they are now known as the Keystone-Mast collection. Underwood and Underwood (is related to)