The Brown University Library and the Department of Italian Studies are collaborating to bring the Garibaldi Panorama, one of the finest surviving examples of panoramic art, back to life in its entirety. Precursors to modern day motion pictures, panoramas were the 19th century’s most visceral form of popular entertainment. But for years the Garibaldi Panorama, a 4 ½ feet high, 273 feet long, double-sided watercolor depicting the life story of Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi, has lain dormant. After the late Dr. James Walter Smith donated this panorama to Brown University in 2005, library staff developed a plan to use the latest in digital technology to make this exquisite relic available to the world in a revolutionary way. Special funding enabled library staff to fashion a makeshift photo studio in the central gallery of the Ann Mary Brown Memorial, as they painstakingly unrolled the panorama — six feet at a time — in order to take digital photographs that would be later melded into a continuous image. Soon, Garibaldi, who played a major role in the unification of Italy, will be available to students, scholars, and virtual visitors via the fully digitized “moving” panorama.

Boasting 360-degree views of historical events, exotic landscapes, and scenes from classical mythology, panoramas deftly altered the viewer’s perspective to give audiences the impression that they were traveling to distant lands or participating in pitched battles. Painted by the artist J.J. Story, the Garibaldi Panorama was a “moving” panorama. Audiences watched as illustrations of Garibaldi’s life were cranked out before them, including such seminal moments as his involvement in the Italian Risorgimento, escape to South America, and failed defense of the Roman Republic in 1849. A narration accompanied the bloody conflicts and scenes of political intrigue. In order to replicate this experience, the project will allow viewers to watch the panorama unfold while listening to a recording of the original manuscript narration in either English or Italian. Visitors to the site will also be able to stop the panorama at any point, focus in on a particular scene, jump forward and backward, and replay.
“The panorama is a unique artifact, both as a historical source on Garibaldi and his times, and a fascinating specimen from the pre-history of cinema,” said Massimo Riva, Professor of Italian Studies. “It is, in fact, the equivalent of a mid-19th century movie reel, painted by an English contemporary, documenting the myth in the making of this larger-than-life Italian icon. Digitization of the panorama is the first step in a project meant to restore access to these long lost images and bring the panorama back to life in its entirety. In addition, an international team of scholars will collaborate with the Brown Library to create an exciting digital resource site for the study of Garibaldi and the Italian Risorgimento.”
“The Brown Library is giving new life to the Garibaldi Panorama,” said Harriette Hemmasi, Joukowsky Family University Librarian. “Now, visitors will be able to experience an important and largely ignored part of our cultural heritage in a vital way.”
The Library’s Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, the Department of Italian Studies and Vincent Buonanno (Brown ’66) contributed to the project’s funding.