Franklin Matters: Franklin TV: Franklin, 1932

Sunday, February 15, 2026

Franklin TV: Franklin, 1932

Here’s a Last Look – in 3D.

by Pete Fasciano, Executive Director 02/15/2026

Through much of December and January our Historical Museum displayed three dazzling dioramas depicting Franklin life in 1932. The exhibits are the patient painstaking work of Scott Mason – as detailed examples of miniature settings created by HO scale railroad enthusiasts. Scott raises it to a high art form.

dazzling dioramas depicting Franklin life in 1932

Before the dioramas were retired (until the next time) I was compelled to get to the Museum and, working with Scott and Chris Leverone, we stereographed Scott’s liliputian landscapes from several teeny viewpoints, producing another historical form of art – Holmes 3D stereograms.

3D images were first introduced in 1850 England by Prince Albert at the first International Exposition in London’s Crystal Palace. The stereogram cards often depicted landscapes, events and dignitaries, You inserted the cards into a stereopticon to see them as if you were actually there.

dazzling dioramas depicting Franklin life in 1932 - 2

dazzling dioramas depicting Franklin life in 1932 - 3

Later examples of stereography came to broad popularity as Viewmaster disks that many of us collected as kids. Disney continues to produce Viewmaster disks depicting its many characters in 3D antics. Today’s 3D movies and virtual reality games are based on the same optical principles that produced these images.

You can actually see these images in 3D right off the page by staring far beyond them in order to fuse the Left and Right image into one 3D view.

And – as always –