A. J. Russell with his stereo camera at Echo, Utah. Stereo-view possibly by an unknown assistant photographer. Courtesy of the Union Pacific Railroad Museum.

The images that we see today reproduced in books, pictured on websites, and hanging up in museums––typically selected from a handful of large-format pictures––were not necessarily what people saw in the 1860s and 1870s.

Stereo-views, moving panorama shows, and illustrations in popular magazines reached far bigger audiences than the few large-format prints sold in books or albums in limited numbers.

Most people would have associated the word “photograph” with what we now call stereo-views.

These views were mass-produced and sold in bulk, mostly in the eastern United States. They were commercially successful, and photographers such as C. W. Carter and C. R. Savage funded their travels through sales of stereo-views.

"Across the Continent: Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way." Lithographic print by Frances Flora Bond Palmer. Courtesy of Merrill-Cazier Library.

Other photographers—such as Alfred Hart and A. J. Russell—were subsidized by railroad companies who wanted to promote their lines.

William Henry Jackson was part of a federally funded geological and geographical survey, and his images were handed out liberally in Congress.