Stereo Card Recolor--Rock of Ages: The Rescue (1896)

 

Here's the other 1896 stereo card I bought on eBay along with The Resurrection. It's titled "Rock of Ages--The Rescue," and I love its dramatic allegory. It was originally in sepia, of course, but I thought the ocean scene would be beautiful in color. Trying to match both sides of the water splashes was really tricky, but eventually I got them close enough for 3D viewing. I also added some blank space to the edges to help my Google Cardboard viewer focus on it correctly.

I think this card was intended to be part of a set with two other cards called "Rock of Ages--The Wreck" and "Rock of Ages--The Ascension," but it's hard to find specific information. There are at least two versions of each card; I like this 1896 one better than the 1875 version I found a scan of here. Actually, when I tried to look these up I found a dizzying variety of related artwork--everything from paintings to tattoos to a music album cover, dated any time between the late 1860s and, well, right now. There is an interesting explanation of the original painting's history here, on what appears to be a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan site. 

Stereo Card Recolor--The Resurrection (1896)

 

I bought a couple of antique stereograph cards on eBay the other day, and since they were sepia-toned I thought it would be fun to try recoloring them. This card is titled "The Resurrection" and was originally published in 1896. Since it has a lot of details in the background, I decided to leave most of that sepia and only decorate the central figure and the palm branches at the top. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. It's better in 3D, of course; I view these on my smartphone using a Google Cardboard headset. It's not necessary to use a phone that will actually run Google Cardboard, either--all the phone needs to be capable of is showing a picture full screen and in landscape mode. Theoretically it should also be possible to print this out at the correct size and view it in an old-fashioned stereoscope, but since I don't own a real stereoscope I have not tried that.