This page highlights new larger digital items and subscriptions acquired in 2021/22 which were requested by, or are relevant to, the Moray House School of Education and Sport.
The Academic Support Librarian for MHSES is Ishbel Leggat.
The Academic Library Representative for MHSES in 2022/2023 is Dr Philippa Sheail.
We work in partnership with the CAHSS College Library & Information Strategy Committee.
Around the World in Leicester Square
Guides to Panoramas exhibited by Robert Barker and his successors at The Rotunda, Leicester Square, London 1794-1839; RB.P.2752-2760, Coll-2043
Robert Barker’s watercolour Panorama of Edinburgh from 1792 is one of the well-known treasures of the CRC collections, a source of fascination and delight to everyone who encounters it. Our watercolour is one of the earliest pieces of evidence for the technique, invented by Barker, in Edinburgh, of manipulating painted perspective so that a view painted on the inside of a cylindrical room appears all but real to a viewer standing inside it. Barker developed this into a popular entertainment attraction in London, The Rotunda, Leicester Square, which showed panoramas of places and events in a form of ‘virtual reality’, with such success that it continued, under the management of his sons and successors, well into the middle of the 19th century.
The Panoramas shown at Barker’s Rotunda were accompanied by merchandising, principally illustrated guidebooks, which described and explained the scene. The texts of these vary in length and tone over the decades, while the illustrations vary in quality and technique, but were intended primarily to assist the viewer to match the description with the panorama, rather than reproduce the panorama in any detail. The CRC collects these and 2021 has been a bumper year in which we have added twelve new guidebooks to the collection.
The new acquisitions include Bath, the second panorama ever shown at the Rotunda, in 1794. This guide is a simple annotated diagram, lacking in the style and sophistication which later became normal. The Napoleonic Wars ensured that battles were a popular subject in the first decades of The Rotunda’s existence, filling a place in the public imagination later occupied by cinema newsreels. The Battle of Trafalgar, 1806, complements the several versions of the Battle of Waterloo which we already have. We have also acquired the battles of Vittoria, 1813 and Badajoz, 1812. The coronation of George IV in 1821 provides a rarer example of an event other than a battle. The others are topographical; a mixture of places distant but not beyond imagination – Geneva, Berlin, and the really exotic – Spitzbergen, Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai.
Some of our panoramas recently appeared in a YouTube channel dedicated to the history of science, Objectivity: https://youtu.be/wpSeIkl2EI4
In 2021/22 the Library extended it's subscription to ProQuest Access 350 until 31 July 2023.
These databases allow you to explore 600 years worth of world history and, along with the wide and varied range of digital primary source databases the Library already gives you access to, can help enrich your learning, teaching and research.
Find out more about ProQuest Access 350
You can explore the Library Subject Guides to find out about the full range of library resources for Moray House School of Education and Sport.
