James Cremer

Cremer was the founder of the Stereoscopic Emporium at 18 South 8th Street, which was open to the public from the early 1860s through 1882. During that time, he was one of the country’s largest producers of stereoview photographs. He had patented his own version of a stereograph process that would result in two images shot within a split second of each other, resulting in two almost imperceptibly different images. When viewed side by side through a special viewer, the two photographs would appear to merge into a single, three-dimensional image. 

Cremer also documented the Centennial and the full spectrum of man-made structures and natural sites in Fairmount Park and along the Wissahickon Creek.