This paper opens an investigation into the relationships between the panorama narratives of colonial America and the subsequent development of American landscape narratives and tourism. In guide books, maps, and settler diaries of the...
moreThis paper opens an investigation into the relationships between the panorama narratives of colonial America and the subsequent development of American landscape narratives and tourism. In guide books, maps, and settler diaries of the 1840’s and 1850’s, a long list of landscape features are described alongside narratives of encounters with plains “Indians.” A number of locations appear to receive greater attention than others, and two sites in particular along the Platte River stand out: a group of Pawnee earth lodges and a Sioux funeral site. These locations are featured prominently in James Wilkins’ 1849 drawings and travel journal, and evidence suggests that they appear to have been included in his panorama narrative too. The Immense Moving Mirror of the Land Route To California has perished but in Wilkins diary his accounts are vivid. Amongst other sources the same locations are prominent too: both places are noted on maps from before and after that time and are reflected also in many journal accounts. The representation of pre-colonial life on the plains appears to have been anticipated by audiences as part of panorama presentations, building towards narratives of manifest destiny. The mythology and experience of westward travel and the overland panoramas have played their part in securing an American sense of landscape and heritage.
