These stereoscope and slides belonged to Olaf P. Larson. Larson was a Norwegian immigrant who came to the US in 1884, moving to Moscow, ID by the mid-1890s. He established himself as a photographer and produced stereographs. Stereoscopic slides depict two images, a left-eye and right-eye view of an image, when viewed with a stereoscope a single three dimensional image is shown.

Larson appears to have traveled to California because many of his slides include images of San Francisco and other areas of California. He also seemed to have an affinity for flower shows, so this Flowery Friday we are showing some of his slides of various flower and garden shows he seems to have visited while in California. Unfortunately, we are unable to recreate the stereoscope effect, so they are all the left-eye view image…

Sources

Olaf P. Larson Stereoscopic Slides, 1950