In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt went on a trip west, and he stopped in Sherman, Texas. This stereoscope image shows him speaking (from his horse!) to a sizable crowd.

But what is a stereoscope, you ask. Stereoscopes are two photographs of one scene taken at slightly different angles. They can be viewed as two ordinary pictures, but with a stereoscope viewer, they become one 3-D image! When stereoscopes were en vogue, it was customary to print a description of the picture on the cardboard mounting. Usually it was something bland like, “Three people waving, Washington, 1910”, but this one is charming. It says, “Square and streets filled with earnest people listening to President Roosevelt–Sherman, Texas.” Don’t you love it that someone looked at this big group and decided the best word to describe them was “earnest”?

Courtesy Library of Congress