Virtual reality and subjective responses: Narrating the search for the Franklin expedition through Robert Burford’s panorama

Abstract

This article examines the scientific and political context of the production, exhibition and reception of a single panorama, Robert Burford’s Summer and Winter Views of the Polar Regions (1850). This panorama represented the first Admiralty-sponsored search for John Franklin’s missing expedition, which had departed in 1845 and expected to cross the Northwest Passage. Burford clearly collaborated with the Admiralty, acquiring permission to base the panorama on sketches taken by Lieutenant William Browne, an officer on the expedition. Burford repaid the Admiralty by supporting their current endeavours in the Arctic through both panorama and programme. However, the many reviews of this popular panorama reveal that viewers did not necessarily agree with Burford and that multiple interpretations of this panorama were extant. Detailed examination of the context of this single exhibition suggests that a reassessment of the influence the proprietors of such exhibitions held over their viewers is necessary. It also suggests that collaborations between proprietors of visual entertainments and organizations such as the Admiralty were probably deeper and more widespread than previously acknowledged.