Zograscopes: An 18th Century Perspective on 3-D Imaging

If you visit Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, you’ll find a curious piece in the 18th century section of the new Art of the Americas wing. It appears to be a five foot tall stubby obelisk of painted wood, with a large cameo-like carving on the front, which is believed to be the work of woodcarver and architect Samuel McIntire of Salem. If you move this carving aside, you will reveal a single large lens, about eight inches in diameter—an odd thing to find on a piece of 18th century furniture. The placard identifies it as a “perspective machine.” This is not the device of that name used by Albrecht Durer and others to properly project an object into a perspective view; rather, it was a popular form of entertainment in the 1700s and 1800s.