Stereogranimators!

And what the hell is a "stereogranimator?"

It's a stereoptican photograph ("stereograph") transferred to the internet. Like for instance the one below.

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

The 3-D photo above is Louisa May Alcott's dear old mum, at home in Concord, Mass. ...

As TPM reports:

A library may not be the first place you would associate with digital innovation, but some interesting things are happening at the New York Public LIbrary.

This week, NYPL Labs launched Stereogranimator, a project that draws on the library’s massive archive of stereographs, a classic 19th century form where two nearly identical images are viewed side-by-side through a stereoscope to create the illusion of depth.

The Labs project uses the very old form and allows users to turn images into animated GIFs, a classic internet form. The rapid animation creates that same illusion of depth. The Labs unit itself is also a sort of collision between classic library archives and digital tools.

“We think this is a really fun and unique opportunity to play with the conventions of what was 3D then and what is 3D now,” NYPL Labs Product Manager David Riordan told TPM. ...

The New York Public Library has several truckloads of these photographs, and they offer a sampling here, for your perusal and amusement.

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

This shot is of the daredevil wire walker Dixon, crossing Niagra below the Great Cantilver Bridge, at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.

Good thing we have Retinal After-images. Otherwise, no stereo vision on the intertubes.