"Better than a map"? The 360° panoramas of Robert Barker and his successors

The 360-degree panorama entertainment experience was invented in Edinburgh in the 1780s and became a staple of nineteenth-century popular entertainment.  The original and longest-enduring panorama business of the nineteenth century,  Barker's Panorama, Leicester Square, which lasted from 1793 to1861 always showed real places, and made claims for the accuracy and truthfulness of its images.  However, it is clear that things were never quite that simple.  This talk will consider how the panorama represented places, and what it was really trying to achieve which made it so popular.

The talk will take 20 minutes with 10 minutes for questions.

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Host or Publisher National Library of Scotland