Myriorama originally referred to a set of illustrated cards that 19th century children could arrange and re-arrange, forming different pictures. Later in the century the name was also applied to performances using a sequence of impressive visual effects to entertain and inform an audience. The word ''myriorama'' was invented to mean myriad pictures, following the model of '' panorama, diorama,

cosmorama A cosmorama is an exhibition of perspective pictures of different places in the world, usually world landmarks. Careful use of illumination and lenses gives the images greater realism. Cosmorama was also the name of an entertainment in 19th cen ...

'' and other novelties. These were all part of a wider interest in viewing landscape as panorama, and in new ways of presenting " spectacular" scenes.

History

The early myrioramas were cards with people, buildings, and other images on compatible backgrounds, and could be laid out in any order, allowing a child to create a variety of imaginary landscapes. Jean-Pierre Brès, a French children's writer, published an early version which he described as a polyoptic picture (''tableau polyoptique'') in the early 19th century, and John Clark of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

took up the idea and designed a set of cards he called a myriorama. Clark's "second series" myriorama, an "Italian landscape", was produced in 1824, the same year as a similar set of English cards called a ''panoramacopia'' created by drawing teacher T.T.Dales. Later in the 19th century, the term ''myriorama'' was used by the Poole Brothers to describe their popular

moving panorama The moving panorama was an innovation on panoramic painting in the mid-nineteenth century. It was among the most popular forms of entertainment in the world, with hundreds of panoramas constantly on tour in the United Kingdom, the United States, a ...

After 1950

Reproductions of period cards are sometimes found, marketed alongside other "traditional toys". Ralph Hyde published ''Panoramania!'' in 1988, containing several myrioramas as well as other, uncut panoramas. Various contemporary artists have used the idea as inspiration for work they have named ''myriorama''.

Notes

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Sources

Jill Shefrin, ''Educational Games for Children in Georgian England'', Princeton Library Journal

French National Library

History

After 1950

See also

Notes

Sources

Further reading