It’s the same old story; I found a box of 35mm slides fifteen years ago at a Salvation Army Thrift Store and couldn't pass them up. When I got them home, I didn't even look through them—I just tucked them away in a cardboard box with some candles, some cassette tapes, and my collection of vintage belt buckles. There they stayed as I moved from apartment to apartment, until I finally settled down and bought a house.The box spent fifteen years in moldy basements and musty attics through the scalding summers and freezing winters—only to be found again when the basement flooded for the second time. And even though I saved the slides from the rising waters, the tapes weren't so lucky.

                Searching through the box of slides I instantly realized what an absolute treasure they are. They are Kodachrome slides from the 1950's and have retained their original vibrant colors. When I spread them out on a light table, I immediately noticed something was very wrong. It looked like the red layer of the slides had slipped and was out of register with the other two color layers. This is something that I had not thought possible...but then I thought maybe the slides got wet? Yet, the cardboard slide mount was bone dry and not water stained at all. It was a troubling mystery. A troubling mystery, that is, until I projected them onto a screen. As soon as I saw them large, I knew what I had found. This collection of family slides were photographed in 3D. Let me say that again, this collection of family slides were photographed in 3D! Can you believe it?

                They appear to be the family photographs of a Lancaster City resident taken during the 1950’s. The series begins in 1951, when the photographer served aboard the USS Molala during the Korean War. The first two bundles of slides are marked Wontan and Chinampo, which were the prominent eastern and western port cities in North Korea, both seeing major battles. In these wonderful images aboard ship, we see the photographer and his shipmates inspecting and presenting their rifles, relaxing on decks, and smoking cigarettes and goofing off on their bunks. In one iconic portrait, the photographer is posing majestically, chest pushed out, with one arm akimbo and the other grasping an overhead line. Fortuitously, visible just above the button of his left shirt pocket is his last name stenciled in black. His name is Ruth.

                The photographs then follow his life after he returns to the United States, gets married, buys a house, and has children. It is a quintessential portrait of the American dream as it was imagined in the 1950’s. And although I know nothing about this man but his last name, the photographs speak volumes to his experiences. From his stoic parents and his bird-loving mother-in-law to his captivatingly depressed wife, the photographs tell his story like no history or family narrative ever could. Oh, and they are in 3D.