And we’re off!

Students in Billie Mandle and Hope Tucker’s Hampshire Media Arts course got to see (and try out, explore, play with..) some of the objects from the Archives’ Robert Lisle Collection of Photography on their first day of class in the Liebling Center.    In this photo, students are looking at a stereoscope camera.  In the early days of stereo photography, two images were taken using side by side cameras.    Once stereostopic cameras were developed, viewers could use this new piece of equipment that had two lenses 2 1/2 inches apart (the distance separating the eyes!) and view prints that had been separated and mounted on cardboard.    This technology arrived in America in 1854, and Hampshire College Library owns a couple different stereoscope cameras that are part of our Lisle Collection.      To read more about the Lisle Collection and view an online inventory of works that are in the Hampshire College Archives, see our link from the Archives web page.    Additionally, we have the catalog, “Photography Remembered: a Selective View From the Robert W. Lisle Collection,” currently on reserve at the InfoBar.   If you just ask for this title (on reserve for Hampshire Media Arts, but viewable by anyone), you can glance through and a get a nice overivew of the history of photography.

We at the library are excited to have students back on campus and buzzing around our main floor.    Please stop in at the InfoBar and say hello— and ask lots of questions.    We’re here to help!