How the View-Master Turbocharged Armchair Travel

Ever since its debut at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, the View-Master has fascinated and engrossed children and adults alike. 

“The handheld stereoscopic viewing device uses slightly different images for each eye that trick users into thinking they’re seeing 3D,” says Christopher Bensch, chief curator at the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. People would buy reels of multiple images that, when clicked through, showcased different tourist attractions.

For over a decade, the View-Master was primarily aimed at “nature lovers and not marketed to a broader audience,” says Bensch. The earliest reels showcased America’s most famous national parks, from the Grand Canyon to Yosemite and Yellowstone, while images of Hawaii and Europe proved hugely popular as well, explains Kerry Tymchuk, the executive director at the Oregon Historical Society. 

“This was back in a time when Americans didn’t travel as much. There was no television or way to see these places,” says Tymchuk. “This wasn’t just looking at photographs. This 3D version made them feel closer, like they were there.”

In the years before air travel became more widely accessible, the View-Master offered people a way to travel without getting on a ship, train or in a car to traverse huge distances. “It made people feel like they could touch these places. It made them think that they’d like to go there and see these places for themselves,” says Bensch. “It helped to build up demand just as incomes and spending increased after the Second World War.” 

The View-Master was born out of a meeting of chance. In 1938, Harold Graves, the president of Sawyer’s Photographic Services, was vacationing at the Oregon Caves National Monument when he “stepped in front of one of photographer William Gruber’s shots,” says Wolfgang Sell, co-author of View‑Master Memories. 

Fascinated by what Gruber was working on, the pair started talking. “Gruber was a big fan of stereography, the photographic technique to give the image depth. His setup was two cameras spaced just a few inches apart,” says Bensch. “Gruber planned to create a handheld viewer for the images, and Graves told him Sawyer’s made stereoscopic films for people to buy.” That’s when they decided to team up. 

Just over a year later, the first View-Master debuted at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. As NBC News reported, by 1941 more than 100,000 stores were carrying the View-Master. “It started off as a photo souvenir. People would buy their own film and take their own photos for it,” says Sell. 

In 1951, View-Master made a deal that dramatically boosted its sales: It acquired licensing rights to all the Disney characters by purchasing True-Vue, a film-strip company. Not only did View-Master soon produce immersive images of Disneyland park, but kids could also be transported into its movies and shows alongside characters like Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and Snow White. 

“This was a time when television was still in black and white,” says Bensch. “View-Master was living color right in your hands.” Parents were more than happy to buy View-Masters for their children, too, because they were cheap, easy to use and sturdy. 

For nearly 75 years, View-Master continued to be hugely popular. Toymaker Mattel, which took ownership of View-Master in 1998, stopped producing nature and tourism reels in December 2008. View-Masters of animation characters continue to be sold through Mattel’s Fisher-Price brand.