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Great find! Old pictures of First Methodist Church and White County Courthouse Searcy AR.

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage

We have a new friend!  Melanie Murphy from Judsonia shared some great pictures with me to share with you.  They are stereoscopic views of mostly Judsonia but perhaps a few from Searcy Arkansas.  She does not have the viewer and we do have a question for the sleuths here because we need an explanation of how the stereoscopic viewers worked.  The pictures scanned nicely, however, and we share two of them here.

First we will do the First United Methodist Church of Searcy with the two views that are used for the viewer....if we had it.

First United Methodist Searcy AR

Next let's do a closeup of the First Methodist Church in Searcy.  Notice the dapper individual on the steps with an umbrella.

First United Methodist Searcy AR

 

Now let's do a closeup of the White County Courthouse.  People are on the second floor balcony or so it appears.

 

First United Methodist Searcy AR

These views of old Searcy are priceless, in my opinion, and I so appreciate Melanie's finding us and sharing.

Show All Comments
Anonymous
Anonymous

I had an aunt and uncle who went to Chicago to the 1939 Worlds Fair, on their honeymoon, and came home with lots of the stereopticon pictures.  I spent lots of time looking at them.

A slightly more modern version that was popular in the '50 was called a Vu-Master, or something similar to that.  It had pictures mounted on a wheel which when put in the viewer one could advance through the sequence via a lever.  Many popular tourist areas sold the wheel full of pictures taken at the site. 

Aug 16, 2012 03:12 AM
#6
Anonymous
Harold Gene Sullivan

Don pointed out that I forgot to add my name on the previous post.

By the way, Don is up here in Issaquah WA visiting and we are having a great time swapping old stories.

Aug 16, 2012 03:30 AM
#7
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Luke, it is a really old picture and I have not had time to compare it to the oldest one in my inventory up to now.  It definitely was before the added wings.

Anita, my question is whether it made them look two dimensional, three dimensional, closer to the eye or what?  Don and Harold will tell us.

Melanie, we all thank you for sharing this magnificent find and I will continue putting the pictures on this blog.

Myrl, I am becoming more and more history conscious.  That must be a sign of age.  : (

Aug 16, 2012 04:48 AM
Anonymous
James Whitlow

Great stereo views.  Small Arkansas towns stereo views are very, very hard to find. Most stereo views of Arkansas are from Hot Springs, Eureka Springs and Little Rock.  Can't wait to see the Judsonia views.

Aug 16, 2012 04:55 AM
#9
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Ok, Don, so what did Harold see?  How did the pictures blend together? 

Harold Gene, what did you see?  You and Don need to quit having so much fun and teach us Sleuths a few things?  LOL

 

Aug 16, 2012 05:00 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

James, couldn't you do some fantastic close-ups from those pictures!!  We love Melanie now as we love you as newcomers to this blog!

Aug 16, 2012 05:01 AM
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

 Barbara, the view one gets through the stereopticon is a 3D effect. This pic looking through the lens of the stereopticon of  men with fish  shows the fish really standing out from the holders. It's quite an effective 3D effect although somewhat exaggerated.

Men with Fish

Aug 16, 2012 05:10 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Don, thanks for the explanation.  So it really makes the pictures more like we see things withour eyes because you see dimension.  Right?

Aug 16, 2012 05:43 AM
Luke Jones
Garver - Little Rock, AR

Harold and Don -

The device released at the 1939 world's fair was the View-Master, manufactured by the Sawyer company. They were made of bakelite and you could put paper reels of color, stereo pictures into them and click through. The early reels were mostly of locations around the world, but in later years the View-Master moved to mostly still shots from kids' movies and cartoons and such.

Somewhere down the line one of the bigger toy companies, probably Hasbro, bought out Sawyer and started marketing them more to younger children. So they looked more like toys. I think you can still buy them, but they're nowhere near as popular as they once where.

Last thing. In the View-master's heyday, you could actually buy a special camera that would take 3D photos, and there was a special machine the Sawyer sold that would cut the photos into the little squares so you could make your own View-Master reels. It's always been a dream of mine to get my hands on those things, but the cutter machine is rare and expensive, and I'd have to find someone who could develop camera film...

Aug 16, 2012 06:27 AM
Tony & Darcy Cannon
Aubrey and Associates Realty - Layton, UT
The C Team

Barbara, Those are some great photos!  Thank you for sharing them with us, I really love looking at historic buildings like these!

Aug 16, 2012 08:06 AM
Anonymous
Ludean Kidd

I remember this contraption from primary school.  Across from Mrs. Wilson's first grade room, there was a room where we could stay in when it was raining, etc.  There were a lot of those pictures and the thing you used to view them.  I really enjoyed that. 

Aug 16, 2012 09:14 AM
#16
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Tony and Darcy, thanks for visiting my blog.  I'm glad you liked the photos.

 

Ok, Ludean, since you have experienced the contraption, tell us what it was like.  Why did you like them?

Aug 16, 2012 10:01 AM
Anonymous
Ludean kidd

The contraption that you looked thru was sorta like the thing Harold is holding in the picture above.  You look thru with both eyes at one time.  There is a double picture on the card and when you look through the contraption you saw one really clear picture.  This was about 1942 or 1943, It was something I had never seen before I started to school.  There were a lot of pictures for the contraption, (I don't know the name of the tool).  I hope they aren't lost.

Aug 16, 2012 11:38 AM
#18
Mike Warren
Real Estate - Colorado Springs, CO

Thanks for sharing these historical photos Barbara. It is nice to see photos like this that has been preserved, so that the next generation can actually see it.

Aug 16, 2012 12:22 PM
Anonymous
Debbie Wantulok

I love the pictue of the Methodist Church...it just seems there should be a story there.

Leave it to Mr. Don to not only demonstrate the contraption but to also share his view...looked a little fishy to me...ha...

Thanks Ms Barbara and thanks to Ms Melanie too...very nice pictures.

Aug 16, 2012 01:29 PM
#20
Anonymous
Harold Gene Sullivan

The conttraption Ludean refers to is called a stereopticon. 

Aug 16, 2012 05:11 PM
#21
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Ludean, I have seen these contraptions in antique stores but seldom do they have the pictures to view through the lens.  After seeing these pictures, I'll be looking for one to try out.

Mike, thanks for enjoying the pictures.

Debbie, there must be many stories there.  On the courthouse one it looks as if the man at the lamp might be lighting it or something?  Perhaps the old fashioned gas lamps that had to be manually lighted?  Interesting.

So Harold the thing is called a stereopticon and the views are stereoscopic?  I have a picture of the backside of one of the cards but the thing wouldn't upload just now.  Bah!  I'll try it later.

 

Aug 16, 2012 10:15 PM
Anonymous
Ludean Kidd

Thanks, Harold, for the info.  I probably won't remember the name the next time I see them.  I sure did enjoy them when I was a kid in primary school.

Aug 17, 2012 08:31 AM
#23
Steve Hoffacker
Steve Hoffacker LLC - West Palm Beach, FL
Certified Aging In Place Specialist-Instructor

Barbara,

So many town have an old Methodist church that seems to similarly designed and built. :)

Steve

Aug 19, 2012 02:22 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Steve, do you think there was a traveling architect?  LOL

 

Aug 19, 2012 09:58 PM
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