Between the early 1900's and approximately 1910, Keystone's commercial strategy converted it into the largest stereoscopic company in the world. They acquired the negative files of their major competitors, such as Underwood & Underwood, B. W. Kilburn, H. C. White, and T. W. Ingersoll. U&U and H. C. White images that were later published by Keystone are particularly easy to identify, since the negative reference number is accompanied by a letter indicating the provenance of the image (V: Underwood & Underwood; W: H. C. White).
The company started publishing boxed sets of the world in the 1920's, expanding this sector until a 1200-card set was issued in 1931. This set was complemented by an excellent guide book published by Burton Holmes, a well-known travel lecturer of his time. The Keystone Travel Club magazine (Around the World with Burton Holmes) used to introduce him as "America's premier traveller who serves as our personal guide".
The regular production of Keystone stereoviews ceased in 1939, but the factory was closed only in 1976. With a trade list of more than 43,000 titles, the total number of negatives in the possession of the company has been estimated as from "likely being in the range of 100,000 to 200,000" [Treadwell 1999, p. 2] to "more than two million" [Darrah 1997, p. 50]. Whatever the total number, the Keystone's archives are undoubtedly an invaluable treasure that now belongs to the California Museum of Photography at the University of California, Riverside [Keystone 2003]. The Keystone-Mast Collection database is searchable via the web and enables access to a growing number of surprising images, many of which were never produced commercially (a search by "portugal" listed 115 images on June 10th, 2003). The image illustrated on the right was shot by one of the company's main photographers, George Lewis [Lewis 2003], on August 18th, 1931, during his visit to Oporto.
The Keystone View Company series listed in relation to Portugal are the
following:
- 400-card World set (info,
views)
-1,200-card World set (info,
views)
- Geography Units (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.
[Lewis 2003]
Walter Lewis, Liner Notes from George Lewis Booklet,
http://www.berezin.com/3d/linernotes.htm (visited on June 10th, 2003). (a
copy is kept here, in case the
original document is not available)
[Keystone 2003]
The Keystone-Mast Collection in the California Museum of Photography at the
University of California, Riverside,
http://photo.ucr.edu/kmast/ (visited on June 10th, 2003).
[Treadwell 1999]
Tex Treadwell's facsimile edition of George E. Hamilton's booklet Oliver
Wendell Holmes, His pioneer Stereoscope and the later Industry, 2 + 34 p., annotated,
published and copyrighted 1999 by the Institute for Photographic Research (the
original booklet was published in 1949).
