See         

• What clothing is each person wearing?

• What do you notice about the windows on the school building at the back?

• What do you notice about the school grounds? 

Think

• How is the school building similar and different to buildings at your school?

• How are the school grounds similar and different to your school grounds?

• How would the Middenways have travelled the 6 miles (10 kilometres) from Wagga Wagga Superior School to Lake Albert Public School?

• Why might the stereograph been taken?

Wonder

• What do you wonder about stereographs?

• What do you wonder about the subject matter of this stereograph?

• What questions does it raise?

Do

Create a present day version of the photograph outside your learning space. 

• Compose your photograph so it tells the story of present-day learning spaces.

• What will people wonder about your photograph in 130 years time?

Stereoscope viewer, c.1890

A stereoscope was used to view stereographs – double photographs. The parts of a stereoscope are:

• a 'shelf' for the photo card that can be moved back and forth to enable focussing

• clips to hold a photo card in place

• handle to hold the stereoscope close to the face

• casing with a soft edge to fit onto the face 

• two square magnifying glasses inside the casing to enlarge the photographs

• a timber divider outside the casing to keep the views separate.

How it works

Because the viewer blocks out everything else, it feels like being in the photograph.

1. Hold the viewer against the face.

2. Look through the lenses to the photos. 

3. Move the card holder so it is the photograph is in focus and merges together as a single picture.

4. The photo will look larger and three dimensional - 3D. 

Compare

• How is a stereoscope similar and different to 3D glasses or virtual reality headsets?

Stereograph - Kept In, circa 1899

In this stereograph John (Jack) Middenway, 6 years old, and his sister Grace, 13 years old, are sitting on a bench seat at a long tom desk. Their father is the school's headmaster, Mr John Saunders Middenway so we assume it is taken at Bexley Public School. 

Mr JS Middenway moved from his posting at Wagga Wagga Superior Public School to be headmaster of Bexley Public School from 1895 to 1917. 

During his time at Wagga Wagga and Bexley he took photographs of his family, surroundings and their lives. 

In this stereograph, both children are writing on slate boards. There is a wooden pencil box on the desk. The title 'Kept in' and the children's tidy appearance indicates it is a posed shot. 

• What information does the photograph provide about classroom interiors of the past? 

• What does it provide about writing technologies?

• What questions does it raise?

Stereograph – A country school in Ireland, 1903

This stereograph was published by Underwood and Underwood Publishers. It shows a small country school in Ireland. The children in the foreground are playing a circle game and the boys in the background are demonstrating drill exercises using wands and dumb bells. The teacher is standing by the schoolroom door.

Stereographs were used in homes for 'virtual travel' in a time before movies, television, Google Street View and accessible travel.

Boxed sets of stereographs  of people and places in the world could be purchased. They were advertised in newspapers, magazines and by door-to-door salesmen. Advertising phrases included:

• 'See around the world with your stereoscope'

• 'Around the world in sixty minutes'

• 'A tour of the world by stereoscope'.

It is not known if stereographs and stereoscopes were used in schools in NSW.

• Are there similarities in the school and children depicted in this Irish stereograph to the Lake Albert Public School stereograph shown above?