May 20, 1851 - Going to the Panorama

Tuesday 20th (May)

Arose tolerably early, went to school, and Mr. Wilber proposed going to see the Panorama. Recitations as usual, came home to dinner, and it rained quite hard, I was caught in it, and by the time I got to school was quite wet. Had a little talk before school, and then, recitations as usual in the afternoon, after which we came home. I wrote a little composition and then dressed myself and went up to Sallie Sterritt’s. Spent quite a pleasant evening and Mr Ware came home with me. It was about ½ 10 o-clock when I got home, but I found Libby and Thomas still up, and this . . . had gone to bed. I retired.

A panorama is coming to Cincinnati! This is big news in these days when only live entertainment is available. Photography is in its infancy, and we are well before the invention of moving pictures in the 1890s.

The panorama was a form of mass entertainment developed in England early in the Industrial Revolution. The invention was patented by Robert Barker on June 17, 1787. The word “panorama” was coined at about the same time (Oettermann 5-7). Early panoramas were paintings viewed in specially constructed rotundas with domed roofs. Observers entered through a dimly lit corridor and climbed a stairway to a central platform. The platform was roofed to shield the view of the skylights above the pictures. The painted canvas was hung in a full circle around the walls. There were three-dimensional objects or cutouts at the base of the picture to provide a realistic transition to the mural. The first panoramas depicted a 360-degree view of a real landscape or historical scene. The painted surface could consist of a canvas strip up to 300 feet in length and 40 to 60 feet high (Oettermann 49).

Cincinnati is getting a moving panorama, a more recent development. This type of panorama depicts the view that a traveler might see from a moving vehicle such as a steamboat or train. It might be of any length. The ends of the canvas are attached to mechanically driven cylinders so that the canvas can be unrolled in front of the audience. The panorama would probably be narrated by a lively speaker and accompanied with exciting piano music. Steamboat journeys down the Mississippi are popular. This type of panorama is portable, so that it may be carried from city to city. Panoramas will become less popular as travel opportunities increase later in the 19th century (Avery 52-53).

We met Sallie Sterritt on March 30. Mr. Ware might be David A. Ware. The 1850 Federal Census describes him as a 16-year-old brick molder, living in Ward 8.