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Laura Keene
Star of 'Our American Cousin

Most remembered for one performance, on one night, Laura Keene was the first successful female theater manager with any real power. Born in England, in 1826, she was married at 18 and had two children before her husband left her when she was 25. She made her theatre debut later that year near London. She quickly became very successful. Within two years Keene was managing, directing and performing in a series of plays. She traveled to Baltimore in 1853 for her American debut. At this point, she had only been acting for just over two years. Keene continued her success with performances in California and Australia before returning east and leasing a theatre in New York in 1855.

The following year she had her own theatre built, where she performed and controlled until 1863 when she decided to begin touring again. “Our American Cousin” debuted at her theatre in 1858, in an age when a dozen performances was considered “long running”. Under her direction, the play shattered records and set new standards. In New York, it ran for 150 performances before its debut in London where it ran for another 496! So successful was that play that several of the characters got their own plays in a series of spinoffs.

It was during a benefit performance in 1865 that Lincoln chose to attend. It should be noted that it was Laura Keene herself that was the beneficiary, in that all proceeds from the performance were reserved for her. This was an honor and expected to draw great crowds. When Lincoln announced he would be attending, Ford knew he had a sellout. About halfway through Act III the funniest line of the play was delivered:

"Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap..."

Booth waited for the audience reaction to that line to pull the trigger. After he escaped, Keene made her way to Lincoln’s side and held his head in her lap till he was taken across the street. Following the assassination, she continued her career until she had a hemorrhage while on stage in 1873. She survived for a few more months but never recovered and died a few months later at the age of 47.

What others are saying:

Bob Zeller: (Author of Lincoln in 3D, Blue & Gray and Black and White, Civil War In Depth I & II) From the dawn of the photograph until the advent of practical color photography, images were hand-painted to add the color that was missing in the early photographic processes. This lost art has been admirably revived by Civil War In 3d in their meticulous tinting of stereo views of the Civil War. Following in the time-honored tradition of the anonymous artists who added color to Gardner's legendary wartime photographs and the Anthony War for the Union stereo series, Civil War In 3D reminds us with their work that the Civil War was not fought in a black-and-white world.

Stephen M. Cobaugh: "I just received my order of stereoviews in the mail. All I can say is WOW! As you know, I'm a Civil War reenactor, but also a professional photographer and graphic designer. The quality of your products is extraordinary and is superior to anything I've seen, especially the color enhancements. It's a interesting reminder of the fact that the war was in color for those who experienced it. It's only modern people who picture it in the sense of black and white or sepia tone."

Stephen M. Cobaugh is a writer, director and documentary film producer. Currently he is working on the story of the Ninety Third Pennsylvania Regiment with his film: “Brothers Ever Shall We Be”

Awards: Civilwarin3d.com was awarded September 2010 "Must See 3D" by 3-D Review Online Magazine "for their outstanding restoration work in bringing these cards to the collecting world.” “CivilWarIn3D.com provided 3-D Review with several sample cards. We were amazed at the quality. Using magnifying glasses, we expected to find halftone dots when we inspected the details of the stereoviews. The cards are truly photographic in quality and extremely sharp in detail.” We are sure that you will be equally impressed!

Shipping:

First cards ships for $5.95. Order additional cards and shipping is only $1 per card!

Background of the collection:

Civil War In 3D images' were obtained from the Library of Congress, National Archives and other quality sources. Each image has been carefully restored to remove 150 years of wear, scratches, cracks and imperfections. Then each image has spent numerous hours being hand colored to recreate, as close as possible, the original scene as it may have appeared on the day it was taken. Due to the quality of work and loving restoration that has been done, Civil War In 3D images have been accepted into the collections of photography and historical museums.

Hand coloring of images is a technique that dates to the very beginning of photography. There are many examples of period stereo view cards that were colored. With modern digital technology, the ability to color a photograph allows the image to move from a black and white photo with splashes of color, to photographs that duplicate as near as possible, life-like full color images.

Each image was created from a scan of the original negative producing a brilliant digital image up to 100Mb in size for each half (total of up to 200 Mb for both images) of the image. After restoration and coloring, the size of the combined images grew to a staggering 1Gb in size before being commercially printed. By using commercial printing and mounting, we have produced a quality image that will last and become a valued part of your collection.

After printing, each image is professionally mounted onto standard 'Holmes' size stereo card measuring 3 1/2" x 7". Each card uses a matte board to produce a durable card nearly identical to the original cards. Other reproduction cards are printed on a slightly heavy paper on a home printer and do not have the image quality of professional photo paper, or the "feel" of a commercially mounted card. A one inch stack of these other cards would hold 97 images, while ours, with our superior mount, would only hold 16! We pride ourselves in trying to recreate the original card with the best modern technology.

Restoration and coloring copyright 2009-2013 by Civil War In 3D. Printed card does not contain watermark (text on image). Please indicate your preference of Color, Sepia or Black and White when ordering. Unless a preference is given, the color image with a Matte Finish will be shipped.