Elmer and Bert Underwood started their
stereoscopic canvassing business in 1882, from a small office in Ottawa (Kansas)
[Darrah 1997, p. 47]. The two young brothers rapidly expanded their commercial
operations, opening branches in other cities and starting to sell original views
as well, namely from Bert's own photographs. The company grew to become the
greatest publisher in the business by 1901, partly by rapidly increasing their
publishing capacity, but also because of their innovative and very systematic
marketing techniques. Darrah also states that the boxed set was an innovation
introduced by U&U, although the concept was already present in many series
produced since the 1850's. The boxed sets produced by U&U were however far
closer to a real trip through the countries addressed. The attention to detail
went to the point of producing a guide book associated with most sets, which
included a representation of the position of the camera when each image was
taken (unfortunately, no such guide book was produced to accompany the Portugal
set). U&U's relationship with its customer was also reinforced by a regular
magazine, The Stereoscopic Photograph (the image on the right was reproduced
from [Dennis 1995]).
U&U also produced "private" sets, including views that due to their lower
print runs are far scarcer. Following the decline of the stereoscopic business,
the company gradually moved away form this area after 1910, selling their
negatives to the Keystone View Company and ceasing their stereoscopic operations
around 1920 (after having produced nearly 40,000 images over a period of
approximately 40 years). Together with the negatives produced by other
publishers who also sold to Keystone, the images are now part of the
Keystone-Mast Collection in the California Museum of Photography at the
University of California, Riverside.The U&U series listed in relation to Portugal are the following:
- Portugal 60-card set (info,
views)
-Variants of the Portugal 60-card set (info,
views)
- Assorted views (info,
views)
Further reading:
[Darrah 1997]
William C. Darrah, The World of Stereographs, Land Yacht Press, 246 p., 1997
(second edition of the book originally published in 1977), ISBN 0-9650513-1-5.
[Dennis 1995]
John Dennis, The Stereoscopic Photograph, in Stereo World, Vol. 21, No.
6, January / February 1995, pp. 4-11.
|
 |