Underwood & Underwood

The company was founded in 1881 in Ottawa, Kansas, by two brothers, Elmer Underwood (born Fulton County, Illinois 1859 - died St. Petersburg, Florida 1947) and Bert Elias Underwood (born in Oxford, Illinois 1862 - died Tucson, Arizona 1943).{{Cite web|title =Underwood and Underwood|url =http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=35349|publisher = Smithsonian American Art Museum|access-date = 13 March 2010}} They moved to Baltimore and then to New York City in 1891.{{cite web|last=Kansas Historical Society|title=Elmer and Bert Underwood|url=http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/elmer-and-bert-underwood/12227|publisher=Kansas Historical Society|access-date=1 March 2012|date=June 2011}}

At one time, Underwood & Underwood was the largest publisher of stereoviews (also known as stereographs or stereoscopic cards), in the world, producing 10 million views a year. The Underwood brothers developed a selling system of thorough canvassing using college students. They distributed stereographs for Charles Bierstadt, J.F. Jarvis and the Littleton View Company. By 1887, they had outgrown their original office in Ottawa and had moved to New York City. Offices were also opened in Canada and Europe, establishing an outlet in London at 104 High Holborn.{{Cite web |title=Underwood & Underwood {{!}} Science Museum Group Collection |url=https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/cp45084/underwood-underwood |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk |language=en}} In 1891, Bert learned how to operate a camera and thus the firm of Underwood & Underwood Publishing entered a new merchandising sphere. By 1897, the company had a number of full-time staff and freelance photographers. In the same year, the Underwoods purchased the businesses of Jarvis; Bierstadt; and, William H. Rau. Underwood & Underwood was publishing 25,000 stereographs a day by 1901. The firm still canvassed and sold its own stereographs. At this time, Underwood & Underwood were photographing scenes of the Second Boer War. Around 1900, Underwood & Underwood introduced boxed sets, with specific themes, such as education and religion, and travel sets depicting popular tourist areas of the world.

By 1910, Underwood & Underwood had entered the field of news photography. Due to this expansion, stereograph production was reduced until the early years of World War I. Altogether Underwood & Underwood produced between 30,000 and 40,000 stereographic titles. In 1920 stereograph production was discontinued and Underwood & Underwood sold its stereographic stock and rights to the Keystone View Company. The Keystone republished images included a V prefix for Underwood source. An example would indicate K24056 as Keystone numbered and the same images V24056 as Underwood and Keystone dual copyrighted.{{cite web|url=http://www.manilaoldtimer.net/Stereoviews/keystone.html|title=Keystone View Company|first=Christian|last=Perez|website=www.manilaoldtimer.net}}

In 1924-25, Underwood & Underwood took the first vertically controlled aerial photographs of the new cities of Miami and Miami Beach.{{cite web|url=http://nsgl.gso.uri.edu/cgi-bin/copyright.cgi?http://nsgl.gso.uri.edu/miau/miaut79002/miaut79002index.html|title=NSGL|website=nsgl.gso.uri.edu}} Approximately 400 images were taken showing the final phase of the first building boom, which collapsed shortly after when the Great Hurricane of 1926 destroyed both locations. The quality of the images was superb for the day and rivals modern aerials in detail due to the low altitude of the aircraft taking them. Little else is known about this aspect of the company's work.

The company ceased trading in the 1940s.

Stereoviews were meant to be viewed using a stereoscope, of which there were many types. However, advances in 3D technology have allowed old stereoviews to be reproduced on digital media or the print page to be viewed using paper glasses. Anaglyph 3D is the name given to the stereoscopic 3D effect achieved by means of encoding each eye's image using filters of different (usually chromatically opposite) colours, typically red and cyan. Anaglyph 3D images contain two differently filtered coloured images, one for each eye. When viewed through the "color-coded" "anaglyph glasses", each of the two images reaches the eye it's intended for, revealing an integrated stereoscopic image. The visual cortex of the brain fuses this into perception of a three-dimensional scene or composition.{{cite web |last1=Alexander |first1=Klein |title=Anaglyhs |url=http://www.stereoscopy.com/faq/anaglyphs.html |website=stereoscopy.com |access-date=28 August 2018}}

The Smithsonian Institution holds the Underwood & Underwood Glass Stereophonic Collection that includes some 28,000 glass plates, including stereoscopic negatives, negative and positive non-stereoscopic plates used to produce lantern slides and paper prints, paper stereographs, sales catalogues and 4 stereoscopes.{{Cite web |title=Underwood & Underwood Glass Stereograph Collection {{!}} Collection {{!}} SOVA |url=https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAH.AC.0143 |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=sova.si.edu}}

Work attributed to Underwood & Underwood is held in other permanent collections, a selection of which is listed below:

• The American University in Cairo{{Cite web |title=CONTENTdm |url=https://digitalcollections.aucegypt.edu/digital/collection/p15795coll8 |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=digitalcollections.aucegypt.edu}}

• Art Institute of Chicago{{Cite web |title=Underwood & Underwood |url=https://www.artic.edu/artists/37065/underwood-underwood |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=The Art Institute of Chicago |language=en}}

• Brigham Young University{{Cite web |title=Underwood & Underwood {{!}} BYU Library - Special Collections |url=http://archives.lib.byu.edu/agents/corporate_entities/1392 |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=archives.lib.byu.edu}}

• The British Museum

• Conway Library, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London{{Cite web |date=2020-06-30 |title=Who made the Conway Library? |url=https://sites.courtauld.ac.uk/digitalmedia/2020/06/30/who-made-the-conway-library/ |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=Digital Media |language=en-GB}}

• Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY{{Cite web |url=https://www.hrm.org/ |title=Hudson River Museum |website=hrm.org |accessdate=2023-04-07 |language=en}}

• J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles{{Cite web |title=Underwood & Underwood (The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection) |url=https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/group/104MX2 |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection |language=en}}

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York{{Cite web |title=Group of 12 Stereograph Views of Celebrities, Including Popes and Presidents 1850s–1910s |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/288154 |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}{{Cite web |title=Group of 3 Stereograph Views of Belgium |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/288137 |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}

• MoMA, New York{{Cite web |title=Underwood and Underwood {{!}} MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/artists/6008 |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=The Museum of Modern Art |language=en}}

• National Portrait Gallery, London{{Cite web |title=Underwood & Underwood - National Portrait Gallery |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp59198/underwood--underwood |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=www.npg.org.uk |language=en}}

• Science Museum, London

• Victoria and Albert Museum, London{{Cite web |last=Museum |first=Victoria and Albert |title=Photograph {{!}} V&A Explore The Collections |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O77479/ |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections |language=en}}

File:PopePiusXStereo.jpg|"His Holiness Pope Pius X, walking in the Vatican gardens - St. Peter's in the distance - Rome, Italy." 1905

Image:StereocardCarabao.jpg|Underwood and Underwood Stereoscopic source image for the following anaglyph

Image:StereocardCarabao_3D.jpg|Stereo monochrome image anaglyphed for red (left eye) and cyan (right eye) filters.{{3d glasses}}

File:Underwood & Underwood - The Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Acropolis in the background - Google Art Project.jpg|1897 View # 2 The Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Acropolis in the background

File:Underwood & Underwood - The Stadium - Google Art Project.jpg|1897 View # 13 The Panathenaic Stadium

File:Underwood & Underwood - The archaeological site at Epidaurus - Google Art Project.jpg|1897 View # 33 The archaeological site at Epidaurus

File:Underwood & Underwood - Shepherds leading sheep to the Nafplion Market - Google Art Project.jpg|1897 View # 35 Shepherds leading sheep to the Nafplion Market

File:Underwood & Underwood - The tomb of Agamemnon at Mycenae - Google Art Project.jpg|1897 View # 41 The Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae

File:Underwood & Underwood - The Lion Gate at Mycenae - Google Art Project.jpg|1897 View # 43 The Lion Gate at Mycenae

File:Underwood & Underwood - The Monastery of The Holy Trinity at Meteora - Google Art Project.jpg|1897 View # 93 The Monastery of the Holy Trinity, Meteora

File:The first and hardest Battle - the call to War.jpg|"The First and Hardest Battle-the call to War".{Called upon to Enlist} 1900.

File:Farewell Darling - I go to fight for Queen and Country.jpg|"Farewell Darling I go to fight for Queen and Country" 1900

File:Sad News from the Battlefield.jpg|"Sad News from the Battlefield" 1900.

File:On furlough - the glad reunion.jpg|"On Furlough-the glad reunion" 1900.

File:The Story of the Battle (stereogram).jpg|"The Story of the Battle" 1900.

File:CAS1853-children.jpeg|Children's Aid Society from Harvard's Underwood & Underwood [http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/cas.html 1909 Collection]

File:CAS1853-art.png|CAS from Harvard's Underwood & Underwood 1909 Collection

File:CAS1853-ItalianHouseSchoolroom.png|CAS from Harvard's Underwood & Underwood 1909 Collection

File:CAS1853-fencing.png|CAS from Harvard's Underwood & Underwood 1909 Collection

File:Airplanes - Types - German plane falls. Fokken D-7. A German fighting airplane which "nose-dived" to destruction near a Zeppelin shed at Namur - NARA - 17342257.jpg|Fokker D VII (OAW) # 2024/18 which crashed at Zeppelin sheds at Namur, Belgium about 1918.{{cn|date=February 2021}} {Underwood & Underwood Picture received by US War Department January 7,1919}Note apparently Zeppelin sheds used to store Fokker DVII aircraft at [https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C214653 AMW C214653]

File:1927 Collier Trophy presented by President Coolidge to Charles Lawrance (cropped).jpg|President Calvin Coolidge congratulated Charles Lawrance for his development of air-cooled aircraft radial engine that won the 1927 Collier Trophy for the year's greatest achievement in American aviation.

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• [http://www.yellowstonestereoviews.com/publishers/underwood.html Sample stereographic photos]
• [http://www.geh.org/fm/st07/htmlsrc/wwiuu_idx00001.html Images from World War I]
• [http://digitalcollections.aucegypt.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15795coll8 American University in Cairo Rare Books and Special Collections Digital Library Underwood & Underwood Egypt Stereoviews Collection]
• [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.UNDERWOOD Underwood & Underwood. Collection 1899-1908] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]

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Category:Photography companies of the United States

Category:Companies based in Kansas

Category:Franklin County, Kansas

Category:Mass media companies established in 1882

Category:1882 establishments in Kansas

Category:American companies established in 1882