GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator
WASHINGTON -- You were probably wondering when the New York Public Library would get around to making a website where you can create 3D and animated GIF versions of historic photos of the nation's capital, right?
It's here.
The Stereogranimator is a tool for turning 19th century stereograms -- pairs of photos of the same scene taken from slightly different positions that appear three dimensional when looked at through a stereoscope -- into 3-D digital images (you need special glasses to see them as three dimensional) and oddly compelling GIFs.
The NYPL has a digital collection of some 40,000 of these stereograms -- a 1905 photo of grizzly bears in a street in Jacksonville, Fla.; an undated photo of Sam Dixon walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls.
There are some photos in the D.C. bunch that gave us pause -- like the one (that we chose not to animate) of a deserter being executed by hanging during the Civil War.
Overall, D.C.'s offerings tend toward stately buildings -- and there is something deeply satisfying, in an election year, about making the Capitol shake. Some people might also think it's funny to see George Washington's Mount Vernon bed rocking.
See some of our D.C. Stereogranimator creations in the slideshow below -- or make your own here.
Stereogranimated D.C.
Read about The Stereogranimator from the artist whose work inspired the tool here.
RELATED VIDEO: Abraham Lincoln, animated from photographs.