In the late 1800s, photography became an evermore present aspect of Americans’ lives through affordable formats including cartes de visite and cabinet cards. Particularly popular were stereographs, which utilize two slightly different, side-by-side images to produce a single three-dimensional image when viewed through a stereoscope.

In 1870 Moran made early photographs of South America when he photographed Cartagena, Colombia. The important port city was a hub for the activity of a U.S. naval survey led by Colonel Thomas Oliver Selfridge that was looking for a canal route through Panama joining the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, an endeavor Moran joined the next year. His images of colonial architecture, including these of the city’s central plaza (today called Plaza de los Coches) and the region’s dense rainforests circulated throughout the U.S. as stereographs, joining thousands of images of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East that Americans could view from the comfort of their own homes.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023).