The first panorama was exhibited at the end of the eighteenth century by Robert Barker, who also coined the name. He painted an all-round view of Edinburgh from the highest spot in the city, which he exhibited in London in 1789. It was such a success that he built a huge brick rotunda near Leicester Square to show other panoramas, including one of London and scenes from Napoleon’s battles.

Barker started a craze for panoramas which spread to Europe and the United States and Australia and continued throughout the nineteenth century. Moving panoramas, sometimes called dioramas, also became popular. A continuous scene was painted on a giant roll of canvas and passed slowly from one roller to another before the audience. It can be seen as a nineteenth century forerunner to motion pictures.