This dissertation has been 62-824 microfilmed exactly as received WICKMï^, Richard Carl, 1929- AN EVALUATION OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF PANORAMIC SCENERY IN THE NINETEENTH- CENTURY THEATRE. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1961 Speech—The ate r University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan AN EVALUATION OF THE EMPLOYMENT OP PANORAMIC SCENERY IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY THEATRE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Richard Carl Wickman, A. B., B, D., M. A. ******** The Ohio State University 1961 Approved by ^ Adviser Department of Speech TABLE OP CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION................................... 1 The Era of the P a n o r a m a ..................... 1 The Purpose and Scope of the Study.......... 3 Terminology ................................. 6 Panorama................................... 6 Diorama ................................... 7 Panoramic exhibitions ..................... 7 Panoramic scene settings................... 7 Sources and Limitations ..................... 8 II. THE HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PANORAMA .......... 12 Introduction.......... 12 Earliest Precedents ......................... l6 Landscape Painting........................... 24 Realism, Illusion, and Mechanized Exhibitions............. ’................. 29 S u m m a r y ..................................... 38 III. THE INVENTION AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OP THE PANORAMA................................. 39 The First Panorama and Its Inventor........ 39 The Invention of the Diorama................ 63 ii TABLE OP CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE IV. THE CHARACTER AND SCOPE OF PANORAMIC AND DIORAMIC EXHIBITIONS DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY........................... 77 Introduction................................. 77 Survey of the Panoramic E r a ................ 80 Application to the Theatre................... 151 R e a l i s m ................................... 151 E f f e c t s ................................... 156 M echanics................................. 158 V. THE ORIGINS, DEVELOPMENT, AND EMPLOYMENT OP PANORAMIC SCENERY......................... I6I Introduction................................. I6I Origins and Early Developments of Panoramic Scenery ......................... I65 Pantomime Panoramas ................. .... 179 Scenic Transition Panoramas ................ 201 Ship, Storm, Sea Scene Panoramas............ 226 Racing Scene Panoramas....................... 256 Ascent-Descent, or Vertical Panoramas .... 283 Supporting the Panorama Cloth .............. 29O Summary ....... ....................... 310 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE VI. THE END OF THE PANORAMA....................... 313 Introduction................................. 313 Effect on Cinema............................. 317 The Cyclorama............................... 321 S u m m a r y ..................................... 336 VII. CONCLUSIONS.................................... 339 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................ 344 APPENDIX A . Panoramas Exhibited by Robert Barker and Henry Aston Barker ............... 358 APPENDIX B. Painting and Illuminating the Diorama. 360 AUTOBIOGRAPHY............................................ 368 iv LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE PAGE 1. A Roman Panorama......................... 20 2. Section and Plan of the Panorama, Champs Elysees, (1842)....................... 48 3. Interior of a French Panorama Building, (1842)....................................... 51 4. Panorama of the City of P a r i s ................. 56 5. Panorama of the Battle of Waterloo............. 58 6. Robert Pulton's Panoramas, Boulevard Montmartre, Paris, (I8 0 2) . ............ 62 7 . Plan and Exterior of the Diorama, London....... 66 8. Transverse Section of the Diorama, London . 71 9 . Exterior of a Diorama Building, London, (c. 1 8 4 0 ) . 94 10. John Banvard Presenting His Mississippi Panorama Before Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle.......................... • • • 97 11. Exterior of Colosseum, Regent's Park, London, (l840)............................... 101 12. Interior of the Cyclorama, London, (1848) . I03 1 3. Interior of Banvard's Georama, New York, (1853)................................. 112 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE PAGE 14. Panorama of The Ascent of Mont Blanc, Egyptian Hall, London ....................... 128 1 5. Colosseum, Philadelphia, (I8 7 6) ............... 135 1 6. Across the Atlantic in Two H o u r s , ............. 139 1 7. Across the Atlantic in Two Hours............... I4l 1 8. Panorama of the Battle of Gettysburg........... 145 1 9 . The Photorama............................. 150 20. Panorama: Porsibasilartikasparbosporas, Covent Garden, (I8 2 8) . I85 21. Stanfield's Diorama of Venice, Drury Lane, (1831). ................................. 191 22. Panorama: A Trip to Antwerp, Covent Garden, (I8 3 2) ....................... 195 2 3. Henry V Diorama, Covent Garden, (I8 3 9)......... 209 24. Pericles' Ship off Mitylene, Sadler's Wells, (1854) ............................... 215 2 5. Woodland Scenery Diorama: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Princess's Theatre, (I8 5 6) . 219 2 6. Panorama: Henry VIII, Act V, Sc. 1, Princess's Theatre, London, (I8 5 5). ..... 222 Vi LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE PAGE 2 7. Moving Panorama; Parsifal, Act III, Bayreuth, (I8 8 2)............................. 225 2 8. Double Panorama Ship-Storm Effect ............. 24l 2 9. Ground Plan: Double Panorama Ship-Storm Effect....................................... 243 3 0. Panorama Cylinder .............................. 246 3 1. Panorama Guide Track............................ 250 3 3. Lateral Maintenance of the Curved Panorama. 253 33. Horse Race Scene: The County Fair, New York, (I8 8 9)............................. 2G2 3 4. Horse Race Scene: Paris Port de Mer, Paris, (1 8 9 1) ............................... 266 35* Chariot Race Scene: Ben-Hur, New York, (1 8 99)....................................... 270 3 6. Detail of Panorama: Ben-Hur, New York, (1 8 99)....................................... 275 37* Horse Race Scene: The Whip, London, (1913) • • 280 3 8. Final Scene: Faust and Marguerite, Princess’s Theatre, London, (1854).......... 285 3 9. Panoramic Ascent: Faust and Marguerite, Princess’s Theatre, London, (1854).......... 287 vii LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE PAGE 40. Machinery for Banvard‘s Mississippi Panorama, (l848)............................. 294 41. Upper Guides for the Panorama C l o t h ........... 297 42. Panorama Cylinders.............................. 300 4 3. Mareorama, Paris Exposition, (I9 OO) ........... 303 44. Panorama Cylinders, Schwerin Theatre, Germany, (1882) ............................. 307 4 5. Panorama Cylinders, Schwerin Theatre, Germany, (1882) ............................. 309 46. Banquet Scene from I]^ Dono Del Re Dell 'Alpi, Turin Ballet, (1645)......................... 324 4 7. Panoramic Atmosphere: Le Corsaire, London, (I8 5 6)............................... 328 48. Model of Asphaleia System Stage ............... 332 4 9. Horizon Dome: Cross Section, Dresden Schauspielhaus............................... 335 viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION I. THE ERA OP THE PANORAMA The nineteenth century can conveniently be given a number of different labels or titles as far as its political, economic, or social developments are concerned. It can be called the century of industrial growth or the period of imperialistic expansion. Or, the summation of its characteristics can be suitably labeled Victorian. But as far as its pictorial entertainment tastes were concerned, it should be called most expressively, perhaps, the Era of the Panorama. No single entertainment factor or device better sums up the tastes and attitudes of the nineteenth century than the panorama in all of its various forms. No single genre of painting indicates more clearly the artistic fancies of the Victorian public, nor can any one theatrical device more distinctly stamp the theatrical appetites or the amusement pleasures of the period. The panorama, as an exhibition hall display or as a form of theatrical scenery, was one of the most popular visual spectacles of the nineteenth century. Year in and year out, from the first decades of the nineteenth century into the early years of the twentieth, the American and European public attended panoramic exhibitions in great numbers. Prom the panoramas they received artistic satisfaction, amusement, edification, and education. The panorama itself took many different forms and was made available to the public in a number of ways. There were the huge, circular panoramas, which required special rotunda-like buildings, and were so large that the spectator felt dwarfed as he looked at the paintings. There were the moving panoramic displays, which were set up in halls, theatres, and church auditoriums and allowed the spectators to watch thousands of feet of painted canvas pass before their eyes. And, finally, there were the specifically scenic theatrical panoramas, which were used in a variety of ways to provide moving background scenery for dramatic actions. All of these forms were closely related, not only in their origins and in the visual effects which they produced, but, more significantly, in the way in which the public regarded them as one kind of entertainment, regardless.of the manner of their employment. To the nineteenth-century public, a panorama was a visual spectacle. That was its appeal; and it was of little importance that the panorama might one day be seen in an immense rotunda