Taylor Merchant 3D Advertising Sets

United States, 1950-60s

One of our favorite sub-collections is these little sets of commercial 3D slides packaged in vinyl cases with the cardboard, folding Taylor Merchant viewer.

In December 1953, the Taylor Merchant Corporation out of New York debuted their little foldable cardboard stereo viewer at the Advertising Essentials Show in New York. The viewer had ground glass lenses and was focusable just by squeezing it. Previously, salesmen had to carry around a relatively high-cost stereo viewer to demo products in 3D to customers. Taylor Merchant hoped their new viewer, small enough to fit in a suit pocket, would be more appealing as a sales aid. Its mailability made it ideal for large promotions and its cardboard material made it particularly suitable for printing advertising messages on both the viewer and its envelope.

The following year, Taylor Merchant took things a step further at the Advertising Essentials Show. They went 4D. They applied smell to the slides using a printing press. Pine, perfume, chocolate — the various scents were guaranteed to last at least 10 months.

By 1957, Taylor Merchant was including a plastic wallet large enough to accommodate a dozen slides along with the collapsible viewer. The next year they advertised the Stereo-6 Sales Promotion Kit, a colorful vinyl wallet with one pocket for the viewer and one for slides and literatue. Alcoa, Pepsi-Cola, and Westinghouse were already big customers.

These sets don’t show up for sale often so we’re always excited to find one.