Great War Glass Plate Stereo Photos

[Ian Ference]

Our archive has completed the acquisition of an outstanding collection of stereoscopic (3D) glass plates depicting various French infantry regiments, primarily (from the minority of image which bear captions) from the years 1914, 1915, and 1917. A complete explanation of what we know of this collection and its five major series (so far) is here: https://brooklynstereography.com/2023/07/28/crowdsourced-archival-research-on-new-slides-preparing-for-war/

The idea is that we're reaching out to Great War historians across the globe to help us figure out how to make sense of this collection, in light of the fact that most images have no captions, and most that do have unreadable captions (see the post linked above for some caption examples). There is a distinct idea that has been floated that the primary photographer was attached to the Fourth Army, given the prevalence of images featuring Gen. Henri Gouraud. Nothing we've seen directly contradicts this theory. But we're asking anybody with specific location knowledge to help us as much as possible in identifying the units, armaments, and locations depicted.

None of the images are front-line action. Many feature officers, many posing candidly, suggesting that the photographer was himself an officer. But it was certainly not a member of the SPA/SPCA - some of the images predate Joffre's formation of the SPA, and none seem to have analogues in the Valois Albums.

Here are a few samples (the first depicts Gouraud after September 1915 - note the missing arm), please feel free to leave comments on any insights you might have:

[Ian Ference]

Here are a few more recent scans.