The Phillip Best Brewery, about 1885, featured on an antique stereoscope card. (New York Public Library)
Recently, the New York Public Library made over 180,000 copyright-free images in its collection available online for free browsing and high-resolution downloads. The NYPL collection is stunning and contains images and artifacts from all over the world, including many of a long-ago Milwaukee. One of my favorite parts of the collection is its large number of stereoscope card images. These cards feature side-by-side photos taken from slightly different angles that, when seen through a special stereoscope viewer, give the illusion of a single, three-dimensional image. Some cards were issued in series and told panel-by-panel stories. Others were meant as tourist keepsakes. This week, I scoured the NYPL’s collection of Milwaukee stereoscope cards picked out a few of my favorites. Click the image to be taken to the NYPL site, where you can download the image or even view it in their “stereogranimator
