Ebay can be a wonderful place. Especially if you're looking for something that is no longer made. Like a stereoscope. It was popular around the turn of the last century, sort of the ViewMaster of its time. Of course, I don't think they make ViewMasters anymore, either. But for the early 1900's, the stereoscope was pretty slick.

Twin images are printed on a cardboard backing. You place the card between pieces of wire that hold them in place. The stereoscope has a handle that you hold onto as you put your face up to it and look into the windows. Through the wonder of the technology of the time, you are able to see one image with a 3-D effect.

I was fortunate to have acquired my grandmother's stash of stereographic photos. I sat down again last night and went through them all. A woman and a young girl in long skirts and shirtwaists in front of the Capitol building in Washington, DC. A bridge in Scotland. The Columbian Exposition. Troops in the trenches from a long-forgotten war. Pope Pius X. Rome. Piccadilly Circus. Women sitting side saddle on burros somewhere out west. Domestic scenes with Santa Claus -- one has him surrounded by "Christmas Belles," young women in their Sunday best.

Looking at these images made me feel close to my grandmother. I could picture her cozied up in an overstuffed chair, gazing at the images with awe, imagining what life was like in faraway places. Or what it would be like to be on a battleship during war. Dreaming a little. At least, that's what I did. I smiled at the woman who made like she was holding up this huge rock that looked like it might topple at any moment. I tried to imagine what it was like to see first-hand the natural ice sculptures of Luna Island near Niagara Falls. I looked at the photo of Berlin, taken before either World War was even imminent, and wondered if those buildings still stand. I wonder about the people in the pictures, what their lives were like, who they were. If anyone remembers them, of if they are just fading images on a piece of cardboard from a long-forgotten age.

With all of the electronic images that are floating around on the internet, in our cameras and on our phones, I wonder how many of them will actually survive. If they will tell as vivid a tale as these old, dusty pictures, still full of life and possibilities.