A Canadian Family

Genealogy, Family History & Vintage Postcards

Expo 67 | Vintage View-Master

Expo67Viewfinder

This set of View-Master stereo pictures dates from over 40 years ago when Montreal held its wildly successful Expo 67 to celebrate Canada’s centennial. Anyone who was alive in Montreal that year (I was 13)has never forgotten how exciting it was to greet the millions of visitors who came to the city – and also to be part of the cultural change that swept over the city. In fact, 1967 is seen as the year that Montreal began to change into the more modern and cosmopolitan city that it is today.

This cover is quintessentially Canadian with its RCMP officer on horseback and the brand-new Canadian flag snapping in the wind. The only thing missing is the Canadian beaver!

I’m not sure whether View-Master slides are popular anymore but in my childhood all my friends loved them. They were collected by adults as travel souvenirs, whereas we children collected different themes such as fairy tales, dinosaurs and Disney cartoons..

Nowadays children are immersed in many forms of vibrant, colourful media but in my early 1950s childhood, our family photographs and television were still in b/w and books did not have as many illustrations as nowadays, so the View-Master probably had more appeal than they would to today’s child.

Coincidentally, the first View-Master was presented at an earlier World’s Fair – that of New York’s in 1939.

expocircle

Related Posts:

St-Helen’s Island (L’Ile Ste-Helene) Montreal, Quebec

Vintage Postcard: Montreal from St-Helen’s Island (pre-Expo 67)

Further Reading:

Expo 67: Montreal Welcomes the World at the CBC Digital Archives

November 12, 2009 - Posted by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault | . | , , ,

15 Comments »

  1. I loved view masters as a child – the “3-D” seemed so real and magical! Thanks for sharing!

    Comment by SueLovesCherries | November 12, 2009 | Reply

  2. I wish I had gone to that fair.

    Comment by postcardy | November 12, 2009 | Reply

  3. My brother and I went on a bus to Expo 67 with some of our friends. My sister worked there for the summer.

    I have a viewmaster in my Sunday School classroom. I don’t have many slides for it (all are old) but the little ones seem to like to look at it. They think it is a camera.

    Comment by Janet Iles | November 12, 2009 | Reply

  4. I loved the good old View Master when I was little! It was like entering another world. So much fun!
    Happy VTT!
    Carol

    Comment by Carol @ Old Glory Cottage | November 12, 2009 | Reply

  5. Well now that just blew me away. I was 8 at the time and my parents got a season pass. It looked like a little red passport – even had a picture in the front! We lived right across the river near Victoria Bridge. Wow – thanks for the memory!

    Comment by Maureen | November 12, 2009 | Reply

  6. sigh. Wasn’t the View Master so cool? And how about the GiveAShow Projector?

    Comment by mannequin | November 12, 2009 | Reply

  7. Memories and a view master….I loved them…..Have a great VTT!

    Comment by Coloradolady | November 12, 2009 | Reply

  8. Love the vintage postcards and the view master ad. Great stuff to collect. Memories are made of this.

    Hugs, Jeanne

    Comment by jeanne | November 12, 2009 | Reply

  9. Wow I was 1 year old that time ^_^ that is really vintage hehe!

    Mine is here My Life’s Photo

    Comment by Kim | November 12, 2009 | Reply

  10. Oh wow, what memories. And they still hold children’s imagination today. Happy VTT!

    Comment by Jocelyn | November 12, 2009 | Reply

  11. I was at Expo 67 with my parents. We drove all the way from Nova Scotia. I still have some of my souvenirs. I also still have a ViewMaster from my childhood which I posted on last week’s VTT.

    http://dominanthands.blogspot.com/2009/11/vintage-view-master-this-vintage.html

    Thanks for a uniquely Canadian VTT posting!

    Comment by Allison of Dominant Hands | November 13, 2009 | Reply

  12. I was there !
    I’d love to see that viewmaster pics.
    (I was 12 in 1967, so we are the same age) I have a lot of Family history in Quebec too.
    Kathy

    Comment by Kathy | November 13, 2009 | Reply

  13. Wow Evelyn.. that postcard of Expo 67 brings back memories! I went to the expo on my way home to Massachusetts from Manitoba – just a little detour ;o)

    Comment by Lucie LeBlanc Consentino | November 14, 2009 | Reply

  14. oops..I did mean to say Viewmaster – you have so many great postcards that I get caught up in the all. I love the ones that have so much detail as cars – those cars give us a good idea of the time frame. Just love it!

    Comment by Lucie LeBlanc Consentino | November 14, 2009 | Reply

  15. Oh boy I wasn’t born in 1967 but I bet the expo was great by looking at the postcard! have a good weekend!

    Comment by fitty | November 15, 2009 | Reply


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