You Belong Among the Wildflowers
A look at the 1946 View-Master box set "Alpine Wildflowers of the Western United States"
View-Master inventor William B. Gruber was keenly interested in ensuring that his clever creation was used as an educational tool. To that end, he spearheaded several book projects that were intended to share knowledge with readers and fans of View-Master alike. The first was “Alpine Wildflowers of the Western United States,” created with naturalist and U.S. Park service employee Howard R. Stagner. It replicates a guided tour Stagner gave to visitors of Mt. Rainier National Park in Oregon (home to View-Master HQ) in the 1940s.
Gruber was a nature lover and spent his free time exploring the outdoors and documenting it via 3D photography, so it’s likely that this was a particularly personal project for him.
To this day, Mt. Rainier is well known for its stunning display of wildflowers in the summer. Of note: “Alpine” in this book’s usage is a region of high altitude where only certain types of wildflowers grow.
The Alpine Wildflowers set, first released in 1946, had several incarnations. The set I have is the second edition, from 1947, and it’s one of my favorite items View-Master ever produced. It includes a Model C viewer, a 158-page mini-book that is the size of a View-Master reel, and 10 View-Master reels (numbered WF-1 to WF-10) filled with photos of nearly 70 different flowers found at Mt. Rainier — all in a charming gift box.
The tiny book is a delight (to me, a person who loves tiny books)! The book’s intro is charming as well:
Do you seek the ultimate in wildflower beauty? Then come with me to Paradise Valley in Mount Rainier National Park. It is late July, and the hillsides and meadows are alive with color as acre upon acre of native plants bring forth blossoms which span the visible spectrum. The hundred or more varieties of mid-season flowers are in bloom at one time.
Photos in this set were taken by Gruber himself. The author, Stagner, notes that: “All the flowers pictured in this series can be found in a single afternoon within a mile radius of the Paradise ranger station.” The book then guides the reader through all 70 photos, and each photo is given a, well, flowery, description.
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