Some of the fondest memories that I have from childhood trips to Gettysburg (or Fredericksburg) are the wonderful souviners that I always came home with. I was very blessed to have generous parents. One of the most cherished items from my collection was the View-Master set “The Civil War” (B 790 G1 Packet). I remember staring into that thing for hours on end while becoming hypnotized by layer after layer of dimension and detail.

You’ll notice that I used to word ‘was’ as its also one of those toys that dissapeared somewhere in between elementary school and college. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m 35 now and on the edge of some mid-life crisis, but I find myself making efforts to retrieve some of these items from my youth. I just purchased an entire set of the Time-Life Civil War series a few months back and I’ve been researching the cost of a classic ViewMaster and these CW discs. They are available on eBay and some private vendors sites. Sometimes its good to be an adult – when you really want to feel like a kid again.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this brilliant piece of American ingenuity the ‘View-Master’ is a handheld device for viewing seven 3-D images (also known as stereo images) on a paper disk. Although it is now considered a children's toy, it was not originally marketed as such. The View-Master system was invented by William Gruber, an avid photographer who lived in Portland, Oregon. He had the idea of updating the old-fashioned stereoscope by using the new Kodachrome color film that had recently become available. While a View-Master reel holds 14 film slides, there are really only seven stereoscopic images; two film slides are viewed simultaneously - one for each eye - thus simulating binocular depth perception.