Peter Murphy
Peter Murphy lived in New York City and later Jersey City, N.J. He listed his occupation in 1880 as a photographic chemist and his age at 41. Murphy patented two unique stereoscopes which he sold to the Anthony Company who produced it. More information can be found on page 100 of Stereoscopes: The First One Hundred Years.
The first patent was #136,333 issued February 25, 1873 and the main feature was that the stereoscope was "made to fold in such a manner as to be packed into a small compass for transportation." The stereoscope is indeed a compact design and quite clever. The following photo's will illustrate the finished product. Shown first is the stereoscope fully assembled.
This photo shows the pieces as they come out of the box.
The box top contains the assembly instructions. The crossbar has the Anthony "Lilly" pressed at the center. The stereoscope has a embossed paper hood and according to the box label is the top of the line "Tulip Hood" model priced at $3.75. I don't know what to make of the description of a "Tulip-wood Hood." Tulipwood today is known as a type of poplar and would have been quite plain and not deserving of the price shown in the ad below.. This hood is certainly deluxe but not wood at all. The brass thumb piece has been shortened slightly to make it more compact in the box. The entire assembly is held together by the screw in handle which passes through the banjo and into threads in the nose piece. The original price of $1.75 is still visible on both sides of the nose piece.
The following advertisement was printed in Anthony's Photographic Bulletin of 1873. It indicates that the scope has been extensively sold but I have seen only two of these in 25 years. Paul Wing indicated he had never seen one.
Here is a second Murphy viewer made of walnut with Morocco paper hood with gold gilt designs, otherwise it is identical in description and function to the one shown above. From the illustration above it would appear that it was priced at $3.00.
On March 23, 1875 patent #161,054 was issued to Murphy for improvements which kept the same basic design with the addition of a turned stem instead of a handle and a wooden storage box that when opened became the base for the stand.
© 2007 - Del Phillips
Revision 1, 4-27-2008