Manila hemp industry, Philippines: Loading a vessel

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Manila hemp, the fiber used for strong ship and industrial rope, was among the Philippines' leading export commodities in the early twentieth century, and this stereograph shows the work of getting it onto ships. Keystone View Company, a major American publisher of stereo cards, issued the scene around 1906, when the islands were under United States administration and American trade with Manila was growing. Stereo cards like this were sold in sets and viewed through a hand stereoscope, which gave armchair audiences a sense of depth and distance. The caption's tags point to both geography and rope manufacturing, so the picture reads as an industrial record as much as a travel view.

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