Viewmasters (1940-Present)

The end of stereographs did not mean the end of three-dimensional images. Just as the last stereocards were being produced and sold, William Gruber and Harold Graves became partners in a new venture to manufacture and sell View-Masters, a 20th century version of the 19th century hand-held stereo viewer and stereograph. The View-Master was a hand-held device for viewing reels that contained multiple 3-D images filmed in Kodachrome color. The View-Master had its debut at the 1939-1940 World’s Fair in New York. The sales of early View-Masters targeted adults with images of national parks, monuments, and popular foreign tourist spots, including much of Latin America and the Caribbean. In 1951, View-Master’s parent company, Sawyer’s, bought out its competitor, Tru-Vu, and gained the license to Walt Disney’s animated characters. From 1951 to the present, View-Masters and its reels became more a children’s entertainment and educational toy than a promotional tool for travel and tourism.