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How to Date a View-Master

Since its introduction in New York at the 1939 World's Fair, generations of children have been fascinated with the images displayed by View-Master viewers. View-Masters work by allowing users to see images stored on a reel which is inserted into the View-Master. While the original View-Masters only displayed color images, more modern View-Masters were capable of displaying 3D images. Although the reels and viewers have been in production for many decades, there are Internet sources dedicated to helping to date the different View-Master models.

Instructions

- 1
  Navigate to the View-Master Visual Reference page and examine the listing of View-Master-related products. Pictures of View-Masters ranging from the original View-Master introduced in 1939 to very recent models are available for review. The Visual Reference page is available free of charge directly from the 20th Century Stereo Viewers website.
- 2
  Click on the product that most closely resembles the View-Master that will be dated. If two products resemble the View-Master in possession, click on both links as detailed information that might help identify the specific View-Master model is provided on the informational page. If none of the products displayed on the screen resemble your View-Master, ensure that the product is not listed in the "Stereo Viewers" section provided near the bottom of the page.
- 3
  Review the detailed product information contained on the model page in order to find an approximate manufacture date. Because many of the View-Masters were produced over a number of years, it is often only possible to establish a date range and not an exact date. However, the exact date of manufacture for some specialty View-Masters is available as they were produced for specific events over a very short period of time.

Collecting Vintage Toys