Man-Made Magic
Travelling Exhibits in 19th Century Manchester
Overview
Long before the days of cinema, television, computer games and mobile phones, visual culture was an important form of popular entertainment in Manchester. Drawing upon technological advances in mechanics, electricity and optics, entrepreneurs developed exciting spectacles, such as dioramas or automata, to attract the crowds. Whether utilising existing spaces, or creating new purpose-built venues, these original displays travelled from town to town, bringing a sense of novelty to the inhabitants.
Automata
Forerunners of today’s robots, automata (singular: automaton), are self-moving objects, usually powered by springs or weights, which are made to resemble human beings or animals.
French woman, Madalen Cordonnier (c. 1821–83), was only a teenager when she visited the town with her ‘splendid museum of moving figures’ in 1839. Marketed to ‘the families of Manchester and the neighbourhood’, her richly-coloured, life-sized automata would have delighted adults and children alike. Made from alabaster, the figures represented characters and scenes from both history and fiction. Admittance was reduced from sixpence to threepence towards the end of her stay.
Diorama
Most famous for his Daguerreotype photographic process, the Parisian, Louis Daguerre (1787–1851) is also celebrated as the proprietor of the Diorama:
“DIORAMA. n.
A contrivance for giving a high degree of optical illusion to paintings exhibited in a building prepared for the purpose. This is done chiefly by a peculiar distribution of light. By means of folds and shutters concealed in the roof, the intensity of the illumination may be increased or diminished at pleasure, and the picture may thus be made to change its appearance from bright sunshine to cloudy weather, or the obscurity of twilight. Some parts of the painting also, are transparent, and through these places increased light is at times admitted with surpassing effect, giving to the diorama a character of nature and reality beyond that of any other mode of painting.”
Noah Webster, ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’, rev. and enl. By C. A. Goodrich (London,1848)
The Valley of Sarnen was Daguerre’s first diorama. Originally displayed in Paris in July 1822, the exhibit moved to Regent’s Park, London (September 1823 to August 1824) before setting up in Manchester from 5 April to 8 October 1825:
“ … the imposing dimensions of the building lately erected for this purpose in Cooper’s-street, may convey a notion of the vast size of the pictures meant to be exhibited.”
‘Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser’ (19 March 1825)
The display caused an “optical delusion” such as “the spectator … fancied himself to be looking from a window on a real and a lovely landscape”, upon which the sun rose and then set. Sound effects were used to add to the illusion.
Assisted by the architectural painter Charles Marie Bouton (1781–1853), Daguerre created a series of diorama paintings, consisting of both outdoor and indoor scenes. Three further works were exhibited at the Cooper Street theatre: Bouton’s view of Trinity Chapel in Canterbury Cathedral, under repair (24 October 1825 to 28 October 1826); Daguerre’s Brest Harbour (18 November 1826 to 31 March 1827), and Daguerre’s Holyrood Chapel, by moonlight (16 April 1827 to December 1827). The dioramas were also shown in Liverpool, Dublin and Edinburgh.
Scale Model of the Saratoga Gold Mine
Lewis’s department stores often used unusual gimmicks to attract customers. The fifth floor of the Manchester store contained a ballroom, which was also used as an exhibition space. In 1899, the room was used to exhibit a 1:24 scale working model of the Saratoga Gold Mine, Colorado.
The 12-foot square model, which showed a cross-section of the mine, was built by Cornish-born William Keast (1857–1936), who emigrated to America as a young man, and worked in the Saratoga Gold Mine for six and a half years. His familiarity with the mine, gained by giving tours to visitors, inspired him to construct a detailed, educational model of the top and bottom levels of the mine, showing 28 different features or processes.
Powered by electricity, compressed air and water, the model, which took five years to complete, included real gold and quartz, alongside “… in motion, some hundreds of little mannikins, with picks and hammers, delving for gold.”, while “On the surface are miniature mules drawing carts filled with ore.” (‘The Era’, 23 March 1895). Entertaining as well as instructional, the model included visual puns, such as miners fighting over the gold, or fainting before a tremendous nugget. The model was exhibited widely in both America and Europe between 1892 and 1904.
Legacy
Mademoiselle Cordonnier also exhibited in Newcastle and Edinburgh, but soon abandoned life on the road to marry a tailor in Hull in 1842.
Daguerre’s Diorama de Paris burned down in 1839. The only surviving diorama painted by the artist, representing the choir of a Gothic church, was donated to the church of Bry-sur-Marne, near Paris in 1842. The diorama was restored in 2013, with funding from the Getty Foundation.
William Keast used the profits from his exhibit to retire to Portsmouth where he ran a gramophone business, a music hall and a cinema. He completed a second model of the Saratoga Gold Mine at the age of 77, after the first was destroyed by fire.
Lewis’s Department Store in Manchester closed in 2001. The building is now home to Primark.
Discussion Points
What factors contributed to the increasing popularity of travelling exhibits in the 19th century?
What similarities can you find between 19th century travelling exhibitions and those of the present day?
Additional Resources
Karen A. Vendl, ‘“Don’t Fail to Visit the Colorado Gold Mine”: World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893,’ in ‘The Mining History Journal’, Vol. 17 (2010), pp. 1–11. Available here.
R. D. Wood’s ‘The Diorama in Great Britain in the 1820s’, in ‘History of Photography’ (Autumn, 1993), pp. 284–295. Available here.
The National Fairground and Circus Archive (University of Sheffield) offers a range of articles on travelling exhibits and shows.
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