
The following thirty-eight stereoviews of Burlington, Vermont scenes that were taken between the 1870s and the early 1900s include many views of local landmarks and scenic vistas. Of particular value to the study of the Burlington's historic environment are the many images of the then thriving industrial and maritime trade facilities along the city's Lake Champlain waterfront, as well as those showing the downtown commercial streets, the campus of the University of Vermont, and the adjoining Hill Section residential neighborhood. When such pictorial evidence as is shown in these stereoview images is coupled with historical information that may be obtained from historic maps, city directories, and other archival sources, researchers may be able to discover facts about the local historic environment that may be of great value to those responsible for guiding decisions to plan for the protection and conservation of significant surviving cultural resources and other historic preservation efforts.
The original stereoview images from the University of Vermont Library Special Collections were scanned and researched by UVM Historic Preservation Program students, Paul Willard Gates, Tim Hulett, Michelle H. Johnstone, and Jacquelyn Lehmann in the fall of 2014 as a team project for their HP 206: Researching Historic Structures and Sites course taught by Prof. Thomas Visser, who edited this web site. To share their research findings with the public, each student in the class developed a web page which has been incorporated into this site through the above links.
Also known as stereographs, the paired photographs mounted on cardboard were originally designed for use with a hand-held stereo viewer as a Victorian-era parlor pastime. Although some persons find that they can adjust their eyes to focus separately on each image to see the stereo effect of these pairs without the aid of optical devices, the perception of three-dimensional depth may be readily observed with a pocket stereoscope and a tablet computer as shown here. Indeed, the image pairs shown below have been scaled to provide a suitable an interpupilar distance for such viewing.
Clicking on each image below will also link to the research findings about the site shown.
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