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Women's Views: The Narrative Stereograph in Nineteenth-Century America (Becoming Modern: New 19th Century Studies) Paperback – November 17, 2015

by Melody Davis (Author)

4.0 1 rating

Part of: Becoming Modern: New Nineteenth-Century Studies (30 books)

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Few American homes were without a stereoscope in the 1890s. The immersive, three-dimensional experience of stereographs was among the most popular parlor entertainments of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period of more than forty years.

In this remarkable book, Melody Davis analyzes the underexamined genre of narrative stereoviews and their audiences. Because stereoviews were created for and marketed primarily to middle-class women in domestic settings, Davis argues that they represent one of the best sources for addressing the flow of historical change in women’s lives. By analyzing dozens of stereoviews—including depictions of gender stereotypes, power dynamics, comical or sentimental situations, and scenes of both serious and playful innuendo—Davis energetically spins a broad history of the real social, sexual, and economic changes in the lives of American women. Her close reading and rich contextualization of these compelling vernacular objects bridge the gaps between the private viewing that took place within the home and the outside world of consumption and power that women were gradually entering.

Illustrated with more than one hundred stereographs and including a three-dimensional viewer, this book will appeal to readers with an interest in U.S. women’s history, the history of photography, visual and cultural studies, and American studies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A fascinating illustrated study of historical gender roles as observed through the lens of stereo card views.” —PhotoEd

“Women’s Views is a major contribution to the study of both U.S. women’s history and narrative stereographs.” —Stereo World

“Davis’s book is an engrossing read. Her research is grounded not only in art history, but also women’s studies, and she has carefully considered the images and the shifting role of women at the dawn of the twentieth century. She is writing on a topic that is almost untouched in scholarship. . . . Highly recommended.” —ARLIS/NA Reviews

“Fascinating. . . . Recommended.”

—Choice

“In the hands of photographic historian and poet Melody Davis [the stereograph] exceeds its brief as a Victorian entertainment. . . . Women’s Views is a contribution to the literature of Euro-American societal change, and her particular focus on photographic experience in the domestic sphere places the accent on gender and private life history. . . . Davis offers a close reading of imaginative possibilities, the space of the stereoview internalized and shared.”

—Martha Langford, History of Photography

“A rich and fascinating study.”

—Winterthur Portfolio

About the Author

MELODY DAVIS is an assistant professor and program coordinator for art history at Sage College of Albany. She is the author of The Male Nude in Contemporary Photography and two books of poetry.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Univ Of New Hampshire Press; Edition Unstated (November 17, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1611688396
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1611688399
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.54 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.9 x 0.8 x 10 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,010,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9,444 in Photography History
- #12,448 in Women in History
- #14,374 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences

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Dr. P.H.M. O'Mahony

Academic Treatise

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 20, 2023

Verified Purchase

Good value history of the role of women in the era of stereography. An academic analysis but the quality of reproduction of stereo cards is above average.