From a series of stereo daguerreotypes by French photographer Louis Lemaire of statues by James Pradier.

Daguerreotype, introduced in 1839 by Louis Daguerre, was the first commercially viable photographic process. Although Wheatstone had experimental daguerreotype and talbotype stereo pairs created in the early 1840s, his viewer was bulky and not designed for commercial purposes. Brewster's handheld viewer of 1849 was far more practical and became the basis for an explosion of interest in stereoscopy. Stereo daguerreotypes were the first stereoviews sold commercially.

Daguerreotypes were one of a kind. They could be reproduced only by retaking the photograph or by photographing the daguerreotype. Lithographic reproduction was theoretically possible by etching the surface of the daguerreotype and using it as a printing block, but this produced less than satisfactory prints. More commonly, lithographed versions of daguerreotypes were created by copying the images by hand onto lithographic plates. Duboscq gave away free lithographed views created in this way with the stereoscopes he sold.