Now this is cool!

Commentary By Ron Beasley

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

The Stereogranimator from the New York Public Library Labs.

Via TPM:

This week, NYPL Labs launched Stereogranimator, a project that draws on the library’s massive archive of stereographs, a classic 19th century form where two nearly identical images are viewed side-by-side through a stereoscope to create the illusion of depth.

The Labs project uses the very old form and allows users to turn images into animated GIFs, a classic internet form. The rapid animation creates that same illusion of depth. The Labs unit itself is also a sort of collision between classic library archives and digital tools.