In 1911, Sawyer's Photo Services began operations. In 1918, brothers Fred and Ed Mayer bought into Sawyer's. In 1926, Harold Graves joined Sawyer's and was responsible for Sawyer's producing photographic postcards and album sets as souvenirs. Later, photographic greeting cards sold to major department stores, were added to the products Sawyer's produced.

William Gruber, an organ maker and avid photographer, lived in Portland, Oregon. While on vacation he met Harold Graves of Sawyer's. Both Graves and Gruber had developed devices for viewing stereo images. Gruber had made up a stereo imaging rig out of two Kodak Bantam Specials mounted together on a tripod.

He had the idea of updating the old-fashioned stereoscope by using the new Kodachrome 16mm color film that had recently become available. While a View-Master reel holds 14 film slides, there are really only seven stereoscopic images; two film slides are viewed simultaneously - one for each eye - thus simulating binocular depth perception.

Shortly thereafter, in 1939, Gruber and Graves formed a partnership which led to the retail sales of View-Master viewers and reels. The actual patent on the viewing device was issued in 1940, becoming known as the Model A viewer. Within a very short time, the View-Master quickly took over the postcard business at Sawyer's.

In late 1939, the View-Master was introduced at the New York World's Fair (marked "Patent Applied For"). It was intended as an alternative to the scenic postcard, and was originally sold at photography shops, stationery stores and scenic attraction gift shops. The main subjects of View-Master reels were Carlsbad Caverns and the Grand Canyon.

In the 1940s, the U.S. military recognized the potential for using View-Master products for personnel training, purchasing 100,000 viewers and nearly six million reels between 1942 and the end of World War II in 1945.

In 1951, Sawyer's purchased Tru-Vue, the main competitor of View-Master. In addition to eliminating their main rival, the takeover also gave Sawyer's Tru-Vue's licensing rights to Walt Disney Studios. Sawyer's capitalised on the opportunity and produced numerous reels featuring Disney characters. The takeover would payoff further with reels of the newly opened Disneyland in 1955.

In 1952, Sawyer's began its View-Master Personal line, which included a 35 mm camera for its users to make their own View-Master reels. Although at first highly successful, within ten years the line would be discontinued. Despite an untimely death, many of these ruggedly well-made cameras are still being used today. This line also spawned the Model 'D' viewer (available until the early seventies it was View-Master's highest quality viewer) and View-Master's only 3D projector.