John House Stereoscope Collection

Doctoral candidate Jennifer Pride is developing an online database of the nineteenth-century stereoscope collection of her mentor and friend, Courtauld Professor John House.  In 2011, Jennifer and Professor House discussed the possibility of digitizing his vast collection to make it available to scholars worldwide.  Later that year, while house-sitting for Professor House in London, Jennifer learned the professor’s archiving methods and began scanning the images for her own research purposes.  Following Professor House’s unexpected passing in early 2012, Jennifer was invited to publish an article chronicling the scholar’s dedication to academic mentoring, “John House, Supporter of the Next Generation of Nineteenth-Century Art Historians,” for the Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art. Thanks to House’s children, Adam and Joe, Jennifer became the fortunate recipient of the late scholar’s vast stereoscope collection, which she decided to donate to the Department of Art History.

This year Jennifer received a College of Fine Arts grant funded by Tim and Dianne O’Brien, enabling her to commence creating an online database for the John House Stereoscope Collection. She is working in collaboration with FSU Library’s Special Collections, which will host the database. Art History students interested in assisting with the cataloguing of these fascinating images of life in nineteenth-century France can contact Jennifer Pride by email for more information.