Sunscope by Sunbeam Tours, Ltd.

London, 1900s

Before Sunbeam Tours, Ltd made glossy travel stereoview sets for the Camerascope/Indupor viewer, they had their very own Holmes-style viewer, along with boxed sets of matte-finish stereoviews with companion booklets describing all the views and how to use the viewer. The lightweight viewer and stereoview “tours” were the idea of Harry Cox, a member of Royal Photographic Society and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical and Zoological Societies. According to reports, the idea came to him during his war service abroad and he was personally responsible for each of the tour sets.

The viewer in our collection is black but it can also be found in green. It disassembles into 3 parts to fit into its own box that matches the stereoview boxes. The sticker on the front of the viewer says the lenses are removable for cleaning and advises “Important - replace with stars inward” referring to the little stars marked on the inside corners of the lens housing.