University of Edinburgh Archive and Manuscript Collections

Scope and Contents This document is of significant interest as a record of the invention of what became one of the most popular forms of public entertainment in the first half of the 19th century.It is a Warrant signed by George III commanding the preparation of letters patent granting to Robert Barker the sole use for fourteen years of his invention of "an entire new contrivance or apparatus which he calls la nature a coup d'oeil for the purpose of displaying views of nature at large by oil...

Scope and Contents

This small, watercolour version of Barker's first full Panorama is dated 1792. Its purpose is unclear, but it is related to a set of engravings published two years earlier.

Scope and Contents This is an incomplete non-aqua-tinted version of the earliest panorama view - and a modest panorama. The panorama is composed of only four of the full collection of a six part set. The panorama shows (when the parts are laid adjacent to each other, and from right to left): - Calton Hill, and the Observatory there, looking east towards Berwick Law and the Forth estuary -...

Scope and Contents This is the viewer's key for a panorama entitled "Lord Nelson’s Attack on Copenhagen", printed by J. Adlard in 1802. It is an exploded circular diagram, with the illustrated features numbered, and a letterpress explanatory key.According to Ralph Hyde's Dictionary of Panoramists of the English Speaking World, this panorama was exhibited between May 1802 and April 1803 and executed by Robert Barker’s son, Henry Ashton Barker who had been introduced...

Scope and Contents

This is a viewer's key for a panorama by Robert Barker, representing the City of Constantinople and the Town of Scutari [now Üsküdar, a district of Istanbul Province] from the Leander Tower, printed by J. Adlard in ca 1801. It is an exploded circular diagram, with the illustrated features numbered, and a letterpress explanatory key.

Content Description

Single sheet illustrated guide to the panorama of Plymouth, entitled "The circle of observation in the Lower Room, Panorama, Leicester-Square. Representing a view of Plymouth", displayed in the bigger of two galleries at Robert Barker's Panorama in Leicester-Square, London. Woodcut image, with letterpress text. The image reproduces the cylindrical panorama as a flat disc.

Content Description

This is a viewers' guide to a panorama of Constantinople and surrounding country exhibited in Leicester Square, London, in 1801. The item is captioned "The Lower Circle of Observation exhibits a View of Constantinople and the Surrounding Country".

Westminster: [R. Barker], printed by J. Adlard, 1801. Broadside, 370 x 313 mm.