Stereographs

Originally, these stereographs were interfiled with other materials in the Warshaw Collection. It was felt that this arrangement could be damaging to the stereographs and appeared in many instances to be haphazard. Therefore, in 1991 they were rehoused to ensure their preservation, and reorganized to better facilitate their use as research tools. Whenever possible, categories from the primary Warshaw materials have been retained; however, new categories which matched typical or traditional stereograph subject arrangement were added. This method created some overlap among categories, so it is suggested that a researcher follow "see also" terms within the section descriptions. The stereographs are now organized by topical and geographical categories. Selected photographers have been indexed as well. It may seem strange that portions of a collection should be removed from their original context, consolidated, and separated from the rest of the collection, but this was done to make the Warshaw stereographs more accessible to photographic historians and others interested primarily in documentary photographic evidence, rather than advertising imagery, trade literature, and text materials. Also, storage of the stereographs in standard document boxes posed a hazard to the material because of their size and form, especially prints on curved or "warped" mounts, which might be crushed or mishandled if filed with other items in disparate formats and sizes. Jennifer Songster-Burnett located, organized, and catalogued the majority of these stereographs as an internship project in spring 1991. The prior association of these images with Warshaw Collection topical categories was retained to ensure their continued availability to users of the Business Ephemera Vertical Files. Often cross- reference copies have been placed in the Business Ephemera boxes to indicate specific images which were refiled, and many cards are arranged according to the original category titles. A researcher with citations to stereographs in their original locations can relocate them easily in the parallel arrangement of the stereographs. The consolidation of stereographs from all categories should enhance their utility for scholars seeking specifically photographic documentation of objects, places, and events. In the original vertical files, the stereographs' multiple topical and thematic associations were often obscured. A stereograph from the "Insurance" category, for example, depicts an architecturally distinguished insurance company building in Milwaukee, but the architectural historian might not search that category for views of buildings: among the stereographs, even the accidental or serendipitous finding of this image will be faster and easier. The project also facilitated more detailed cataloguing of these images, with considerable cross- referencing and subject descriptors in the automated database (SIRIS): for example, the insurance building, the only item in the "Insurance" category of the stereographs subdivision, has been cross-referenced under architectural descriptors, and can be accessed in this manner as well.