# Monday Connect: Explore the View-Master Database
**URL:** https://connect.oeglobal.org/t/monday-connect-explore-the-view-master-database/9658
**Category:** The Plaza
**Tags:** monday-connect
**Created:** [November 2, 2026, 4:11pm UTC](https://connect.oeglobal.org/t/monday-connect-explore-the-view-master-database/9658 "2026-11-02T16:11:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@cogdog](https://connect.oeglobal.org/u/cogdog)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2026, 4:11pm UTC](https://connect.oeglobal.org/t/monday-connect-explore-the-view-master-database/9658/1 "2026-11-02T16:11:20Z")
Happy Monday, the first in November, and time for a new #monday-connect where I aim to share something of interest I came across since last Monday. This week you can date yourself as having explored old technology, raise your hand if you have ever looked through a [View-Master](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View-Master) (raise two hands if you owned one, three is you still have it).
_[View-Master: Model C-3798](https://flickr.com/photos/jwpearce/10725364133) flickr photo by [Jack W. Pearce](https://flickr.com/people/jwpearce) shared under a [Creative Commons (BY-SA 2.0) license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)_
Invented in 1939, these devices allowed you to see color stereographic photos from places around the world, each disk with maybe 14 images you could advance in the viewer.
Through [a shared news article from the Santa Maria Sun](https://www.santamariasun.com/arts/explore-the-history-of-view-master-3d-through-a-santa-maria-residents-new-documentary/) I learned here about Dave Machin and an amazing effort to build [a large, searchable database of View-Master reels](https://vm.vmdatabase.com/). He bought one of these devices in an antique store and became keenly interested in how the photos of places portrayed in View-Master reels, 70 to 80 years old now compared to how they look now.
This began in 2020 as a “pandemic-hobby” where Machin started building a database of them in the online tool [AirTable](https://www.airtable.com/) which now indexes thousands of reels.
I took a few search spins looking for ones say of the Taj Mahal landing randomly in images from the disk on [The Taj Mahal and Red Fort Agra India](https://airtable.com/app5Q6OlJ3iMkJ8cd/shrD0s6Tu2cU0XDWL/tblARt16RFYyr6j42/viwutcuhSodIOibzQ/rechzA6IczlphSYsn).
Machin has built apps on top of this database, [give the trivia game a try](https://vm.vmdatabase.com/trivia.html) where you get four random images and have to choose from 4 presented choices to pick the location. I feel pretty good I got five in a row (getting one wrong for the SIlverton-Durango railroad which is not goot since I have visited there, There is also a [Wordle like place guessing game](https://vm.vmdatabase.com/vmm.html).
There is more! Machine has made a short documentary about the View-MasterL
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZmfLTubkVI)
And for a “reel” treat find Machin’s [YouTube channel for View Master Channels](https://www.youtube.com/@viewmastertravels5114) where he visits locations shown in one title and attempts to find the location to compare the old images with how they look now. I enjoyed [The View-Master Photo No Map Could Find](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIetxF1q268) where he visited Joshua Tree National Park to find locations from a VIew-Master disk from 1950.
Okay, this is pretty obscure and old technology, but I am so impressed with the amount of effort and research one person has put into a passion interest and how it is generously shared (and its a nudge for me to learn more about Air Table).
Take a “spin” and share something of interest you find in the [View-Master Database](https://vm.vmdatabase.com/), how well you did on one of the quiz games, or something you find of interest in the View-Master Travels series.
Or if you had one, share you memory of using a View-Master –[I have one I got maybe 20 years ago at a thrift store](https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/3982360356/) along with [a few disks from the Grand Canyon](https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/4039321320/).
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### Author:  [@karencang](https://connect.oeglobal.org/u/karencang)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2026, 4:39pm UTC](https://connect.oeglobal.org/t/monday-connect-explore-the-view-master-database/9658/2 "2026-11-02T16:39:30Z")
OMG, my beloved viewmaster was my favorite childhood toy. I had a disc called the 7 wonders of the world and I looked at it over and over and over again. I think it inspired my desire to travel the globe. (I have visited and/or worked in 28 countries to date).
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### Author:  [@cogdog](https://connect.oeglobal.org/u/cogdog)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2026, 4:52pm UTC](https://connect.oeglobal.org/t/monday-connect-explore-the-view-master-database/9658/3 "2026-11-02T16:52:47Z")
The Seven Wonders (ancient, modern, natural) are definitely in there!
> **[View-Master Database](https://vm.vmdatabase.com/index.html?go=wonders%20of%20the%20world)**
>
> Dave Machin's Searcheable Database of View-Master Reels