Degree Date
2026
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
History of Art
Abstract
This dissertation examines the technology of the stereoscope and its threedimensional image called a stereograph. Invented in 1838 by the British physicist Charles Wheatstone, the stereoscope produces an optical illusion in which depth and volume appear to project both inward and outward from a stereograph’s two-dimensional surface. This spectacular, three-dimensional image enjoyed widespread popularity in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries as the technology underwent multiple reinventions. By examining stereoscopy with an art historical lens, this dissertation considers the technology in relation to the tradition of perspective and illusionism in art. The stereograph’s emergence alongside photography marks an intensification of a longstanding fantasy to represent three-dimensional space in two-dimensions. This project argues that although the stereograph appears to transcend the confines of its pictorial window, the mechanism of its three-dimensional illusion distinguishes it critically from its two-dimensional counterparts. The chapters of this dissertation identify and analyze these mechanisms through the telling of three unique stories from the history of stereography. The first chapter examines Alfred A. Hart’s 1865–1869 stereographs of the Central Pacific Railroad and argues that the stereographic image was indifferent to the rules of perspective. Consequently, the binocular illusion of the stereoscope required photographers of the nineteenth century to adopt new compositional strategies that ultimately rendered the landscape strange and unfamiliar. The second chapter examines ii i 1938 invention of the View-Master by William B. Gruber and its mid-century popularity. This chapter argues that the View-Master’s popularization was not based upon its ability to replicate deep space, but rather the inverse: to simulate proximity to far-off places. The final chapter examines Marcel Duchamp’s artistic practice and enigmatic final work, Étant donnés: 1° la chute d'eau 2° le gaz d'éclairage (1946–1966), a three-dimensional installation widely understood to play with the optics of the stereoscope. This chapter argues that Étant donnés marks a culmination of various artistic strategies and gestures that ultimately reframe spectatorship as a relational practice. Together, these chapters form a cumulative argument about perspective and spectatorship, and produce an episodic history of stereoscopy that highlights areas of the technology that have been previously overlooked.
Citation
Hankel, Margaret. 2026. "Beyond Perspective: A Spectacular History of the Three-Dimensional Image through the Stereoscope, the View-Master, and Marcel Duchamp." PhD Diss, Bryn Mawr College.