Keystone View Company - Educational Department

Educational Department

In 1905 Keystone View Company began its Educational Department, selling views and glass lantern slides (the forerunner of the photo transparency, later used in slide projectors) to schools throughout the country. They also produced lantern slide projection equipment.

Selling stereoviews and lantern slides to schools was a field pioneered by Underwood & Underwood, and for several years Underwood and Keystone were competitors for the growing educational market. According to the 1953 Keystone Sales Manual the more aggressive sales methods and the more progressive editorial policies of the Keystone View Company soon made it the acknowledged leader in the work, and Underwood & Underwood decided to give up the contest.

Over the years hundreds of educational sets were marketed to teach geography, social studies, science, history and reading. They even produced and sold a special line of stereoview sets for medical students. Lantern slides and stereoviews were often combined in sets, with one side of a stereoview printed on glass so that a two-dimensional image could be projected on a screen for the entire class to see. Students could then take turns viewing the three-dimensional version of the photos with the stereoviews and one of the many stereoscopes that came with the set.

The large classroom sets came housed in furniture quality wooden cabinets, which were made by the company.

Between 1915 and 1921 Keystone View Company purchased the negatives of nearly all of its competitors; they also continued to have staff photographers travel the world, so that by 1935 Keystone had approximately two million stereoscopic negatives.

Keystone View Company produced stereographic sets up through the mid-twentieth century, and had a stereoscopic photographer on staff until at least 1955.