Stereograph
Stereopticon photograph (stereograph) of a group of people taken at Nabnasset in Westford, not far from the Brookside railroad station (near the Brookside Mill complex). Stereographs were made by taking two images at slightly different angles. They were viewed in a kind of slide-projector known as a stereopticon that combined the two pictures to create a 3D effect. The pictures were taken by S. Towle. According to masshist.org and Find a Grave, photographer Simon Towle (1833-1910), who was born and died in Maine, was active in Lowell between 1855 and 1899.
The photos were taken around 1890, when the area around Nabnasset Lake was a summer community. Nabnasset, which now includes the historic village of Brookside, had year-round residents by the 1950s, around the time the extra “T” was dropped from the village’s name.
W.2012.42.2