By Jake Palmateer
An Otsego County man has brought a new dimension to the study of the Civil War.
"The Civil War: A History in 3-D," by Richard Loren Copley of Arnold Lake, is a photographic history of the war between the states _ with a twist.
Copley said he uses restored stereo photographs from 1861 to 1865, which he has converted by computer to be viewed through standard 3-D glasses.
"My motive in producing the book was to allow the general public to experience the stereo photographs the way the photographers intended them to be viewed _ in full three dimensions," Copley said. "During the period that these pictures were recorded, stereoscopes were very popular, and the photographers were confident in their ability to be seen in 3-D by a large portion of the population."
The stereographs created during the Civil War contain two images _ one for each eye _ and were viewed through a stereoscope, Copley said.
He digitally restored and converted the photographs to red/cyan anaglyphs to reproduce the 3-D illusion.
Nearly all of the 73 photographs in the book were originally stereographs. Photographs of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and the Appomattox, Va., home of Wilmer McLean, where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant, were not originally stereographs. They were converted to 3-D through a technique developed by Copley.
The original photographs are all courtesy of the Library of Congress.
In addition to creating the book, Copley published it and, with the help of his wife, is doing the marketing and distribution, he said.
"I have been truly gratified to find how well it has been accepted by everyone who has seen it," he said. "We launched the book by touring sites of Civil War battles and encampments _ Gettysburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, Newport News, etc. _ and were successful in placing the book in museum shops in these areas.
"It is also available locally at The Green Toad in Oneonta, The Farmers' Museum and Augur's Books in Cooperstown, as well as online at www.civilwar3d.com," Copley said.
Copley is a former teacher and a museum-exhibit designer and website builder.
