Timby was educated at the private Connecticut College, New London,[1][2] where as an Anthropology undergraduate she undertook a minor subject studio arts, studying photography and making photographs in the vintage processes of cyanotype and gum printing.
His study of original photographs and primary source materials to uncover overlooked aspects of the history of photography chimed with her background in anthropology and as an historian.
The exhibition and catalogue[7] in English and in French ( “Paris en 3D: de la stéréoscopie à la réalité virtuelle, 1850-2000”) in hardbound editions, appealed to a diverse audience who, using the different stereo viewers enclosed in the book, could enjoy hundreds of images, stereo pairs, anaglyphs, lenticular images and holograms, of Parisian life from the early nineteenth century to the present.
Timby contributed text that one reviewer[8] called an ‘historical roadmap of the techniques leading to the development of 3D photography from stereocards, anaglyphs, and holograms to 3D computer imagery and virtual reality’.
[11] When researching 3D imaging Timby found that colour was a major consideration, a thread that developed during her PhD on lenticular photography, begun after "Paris in 3D" closed and she had left Carnavalet.
Timby's other projects at the Musée Nicéphore Niépce included designing and implementing new permanent exhibition spaces structured around a rotating series of mini-exhibits, thus continuing her informed engagement with a broad audience.
Response to the book was positive and recognised the value of Timby's contribution to the literature on lenticular imagery which in comparison to the history and analysis of other 3D technologies had received little attention.