RVA50 Object 30 “Views of Richmond & Vicinity, circa 1870s”

“Views of Richmond & Vicinity,” circa 1870s

Anderson Gallery, photographer
George S. Cook, publisher
Richmond, Virginia
Stereograph
V.46.38.387

Have you ever seen a stereograph?  Stereographs or stereoscopic views are cards with a pair of photographs which give a 3-dimensional image when looked at through a viewer. These were popularly mass produced enjoying their greatest popularity from 1870-1920.  This card records the ruins of City Hall prior to the clearing of the site for a new building.

George S. Cook (1819-1902), born in Stratford, Connecticut, settled in South Carolina, where he became one of the foremost Confederate photographers recording the devastation of Fort Sumter and the city of Charleston. In 1880 he relocated to Richmond and set up a studio.

In addition to his active studio, Cook bought the negatives and businesses of other Richmond photographers which he added to his inventory of marketable images.  The Anderson Gallery was located at 913 Main Street, Richmond.

Cook Collection, 1946