Looking Again
A historic first and a celebrated highlight of the 1893 World’s Fair Columbian Exposition, the massive Panorama created by KU professor Lewis Lindsay Dyche, originally depicted groups of North American mammals in their native surroundings. Now exhibited in the KU Natural History Museum, the Panorama shows a 360-degree-view of species situated among various landscapes, such as the Rocky Mountains and the Midwestern plains.
Dyche’s objectives in creating the Panorama mirror that of contemporary natural history exhibits, to encourage audiences to look carefully at nature from new and original perspectives. In turn, to consider the human impact on nature; love it, enjoy it, and protect it. We now have the opportunity to look at Dyche’s creation again, not simply as a didactic tool, but as an intriguing artifact with a cultural life worthy of attention. In order to do so our project focuses on the photographs that document the Panorama’s historic past. These early images record the condition of specimens, process of taxidermy, arrangement of museum space, changes in display, and the overall long-term curation, care, and documentation of scientific knowledge at the University of Kansas.
With the aid of historical photographs, this project provides a unique perspective on the intersection of art and science. The alignment of natural history with the arts has been essential to the spread of its understanding of the world. While scientific illustrations form an important part of the historical record of natural history, they can only document what the viewer sees. In contrast, photography has the potential to record the natural world beyond artistic interpretations. Beginning in the 1850s, scientists were quick to recognize the potential this new technology afforded as a tool of observation and measurement. Used in this way, photography became not just a recording device but a medium of discovery.
It is our hope that in sharing this photographic collection the contemporary viewer is able to look at Dyche’s Panorama with fresh eyes, curiosity, appreciation, and see it not just for what the historic display was, but in ways Dyche might never have imagined.
