"The humble, though more profitable art": panoramic spectacles in the American entertainment world, 1794-1850

Grier, Katherine C.In the first half of the nineteenth century, panorama exhibitions were a hybrid amusement, an “art entertainment” that straddled the line between “fine art” and “entertainment” when both fields were hotly contested battle grounds. As their proprietors began infiltrating the business of American entertainment, panoramas were either second-market imports—European productions searching for new audiences— or domestic experiments. In either case, they were entrepreneurial efforts that depended entirely on the approval of the public to achieve financial success. That simple fact forced panorama exhibitors to produce attractions that they believed were most likely to please a wide popular audience, a difficult task because that public itself was in flux as the United States experienced rapid social, economic, political, and cultural changes. By focusing on the American panoramic experience through the first half of the nineteenth century, this project argues that this entertainment form was an oddity even in its prime and, as a result, was more prone to financial failure than success. However, close examination of the circular panorama and its related forms also offers important insights into the early American art economy, the business of popular entertainment, and the transatlantic interests of antebellum Americans.University of Delaware, Department of HistoryPh.D