View-Master viewer with commercial slide disc and stereoscopic viewers for unprocessed film. (Photo by Andrew Saluti, Fisher-Price, Inc.)
The museum studies program in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ School of Design has received a $28,000 grant from Buffalo-based Fisher-Price, Inc. to fund the coordination and digitization of the View-Master™ archive.
View-Master™ was first introduced at the 1939 New York World’s Fair by inventors Harold Graves and William Gruber. In 1951, View-Master acquired film-strip company Tru-Vue and, with it, the licensing rights for popular production companies such as Disney. Since then, the popular stereoscopic viewer has documented millions of three-dimensional images of national parks and international destinations, behind-the-scenes footage of countless movie and television productions, original animation cells, scientific images and historic events that have shaped the 20th century, including never-before-seen images from the Apollo space mission and the coronation of Queen Elizbeth II. The View-Master™ was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1999.
The project is coordinated by Andrew J. Saluti, associate professor and program coordinator of the museum studies program. “We’re so thrilled to be working on this project with Fisher-Price,” says Saluti. “This kind of hands-on, real-world archival collections work is a cornerstone of our approach to curriculum and preparing emerging museum professionals for their careers. As for the archive, the potential for future curatorial projects, research and reference to a century of popular culture is truly exciting.”
The initial phase of the project focused on digitization and interpretation of the mass collection of film positives, slides and other historic types of photo media with the aim of creating a searchable, illustrated database. This important first step will open the door to future projects that will include curatorship and design of exhibitions and other public projects.
Abby Cullen G’24 examines color positive film shot for stereoscopic viewing. (Photo by Andrew Saluti, Fisher-Price, Inc.)
Together with museum studies graduate students Molly Dano G’25, Paola Manzano G’25, Hannah Riley G’25, and Abby Cullen G’24, the team completed five three-day onsite sessions at the Fisher-Price headquarters in May. During these sessions, they digitized and interpreted decades of original film positives, much of which had never been seen by the public.
The range of media includes classic Hollywood productions to contemporary blockbusters. Riley worked on a large collection of set photos from the “Harry Potter” series. “I scanned slides from the set of ‘[Harry Potter and] the Sorcerer’s Stone’ (2001, Warner Brothers). It was exciting to uncover that many of the props you see in the movie, like some of the floating candles in the Great Hall, are real! The details that these images reveal are amazing.”
The archive also includes original animation cels and film from Disney, Warner Brothers, Hannah-Barbara and more, all created specifically for stereoscopic viewing. “As someone who grew up obsessed with their View-Master™, this project is very special and exciting to me,” explains Dano. “Having a background in illustration, it is really interesting to get to look at so much original material, including hand-painted animation cels. Examining the techniques and styles used has not only given me a better understanding about how stereoscopic images work, but it has also been highly rewarding in terms of my own artistic and collections-based practice.”
Cullen and Manzano are drawn to historic images of where they grew up, leveraging their personal experience as well as giving insight into the interpretation of the materials. “As a Niagara Falls local, it’s been really fascinating to see images of this area from decades ago, illustrating how much the landscape has evolved into what we now see and experience,” explains Cullen.
Manzano, a native of Puerto Rico, was able to correct misidentified locations or names immediately. “Working on images from Puerto Rico from the early 1970s, it was interesting to see what has and has not changed on the island in the past 50 years. It makes me feel more connected to my home, even from Upstate New York.”
