In 2013, I attended the United States Institute of Theatre Technology (USITT) Conference in Milwaukee. I was scheduled with Lance Brockman to present a session in a nearby Masonic venue- “Theatre of the Fraternity: Creating the World of Freemasonry.” On March 21, 2013, we each gave a presentation about historical scenic art and degree productions. Then we invited participants onto the stage to examine early-twentieth-century dry pigment painting techniques. At the beginning of the week, I spent two days cataloguing and evaluating the Milwaukee Scottish Rite scenery collection at the Humphrey Center so that we would know the best scenes to lower during the USITT session. I always try to visit a Scottish Rite theater during a USITT conference if there is one in the same city.
I was also working on another theater project during the 2013 USITT conference at the Milwaukee Historical Society. It was a personal academic adventure to see a display about the Milwaukee panorama painters. The small exhibit was recommended by several of my colleagues. Over the course of two days I did much more that take a sneak peak at a display case. I examined the handwritten diaries of Friedrich W. Heine (1845-1921). It was in the day before my iPhone, but there was a copier and I left with a 1” pile of reproductions. My intention was that have my husband translate many of the entries that accompanied little drawings in the margin, especially pertaining to Masonic subject matter. Heine popped back up on my radar when Gene Meier forwarded on some of his own research about the Milwaukee panorama artists this past summer.
For many theater technicians and historians, their academic education fails to include details about the incredibly complex stage machinery and scenic illusion from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We receive minimal instruction pertaining to a variety of popular entertainments, including moving panoramas and cycloramas. In the classroom, it was occasionally referred to as a “low-brow” form of entertainment, not the work of the masters. As I have persisted in my research over the years, I have come to realize that many of the scenic artists and stage machinists who produced spectacles were the actual masters.
I might have a PhD in theatre, but all of my education pertaining to visual spectacle happened outside of my doctoral program, specifically in classes with MFA designers. It was one particular professor’s research interest and enthusiasm that provided me with an incentive to study historical scenic art and design. Lance Brockman at the University of Minnesota forever altered my perception as a theater historian and practitioner. Scenic illusion remained a vibrant art form with a beauty that would guide my career as an artist. Without his enthusiasm for the subject matter or his support of my own academic interests, I would not be writing this blog today or restoring historical scenery collections.
Now for those without years spent in a theater department or a performing arts archive, let’s start with the term panorama, specifically a moving panorama. These long canvases were advertised in feet, and sometimes miles. Visitor’s sat stationery in a theater while a very long canvas scrolled from one vertical roll to another. The painted landscape would pass by as if looking out the window of a train. This type of exhibit could easily travel to a variety of venues as the two rolls would be positioned within any proscenium.
Cycloramas were panoramic in nature and created for a specific type of building with a unique form of rigging. A rotunda building, octagonal or polygonal in shape, was necessary for this visual spectacle. Narrow passages brought visitors into the building where they emerged into the center of a scene. Some included impressive lighting and sound effects. Others included educational lectures. Whether it was a city on fire, a horrific scene at a battle, or bubbling volcanic crater in Hawaii, a realistic scene transported visitors to another time and place. A diorama began near the viewing platform and transitioned into a two-dimensional vista.
The rise of the cyclorama studio occurred in the 1880s and coincided with the rise of the scenic studio. Utilizing an ever-expanding network of transportation, painted scenery was easily shipped from town to town. Tomorrow, I will begin a series on the stories of the artists who created these massive paintings. They were contemporaries of Thomas G. Moses.
To be continued…
