Bringing History to Life – John Hunter Kerr’s 1861 Panorama from the Melbourne Club

Recently, Hidden Melbourne discovered a previously unknown 360 degree photographic panorama of Melbourne from 1861, which you can see here:  https://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/time-travel/1861-melbourne-club/

J H Kerr’s 1861 Panorama from the Melbourne Club is one of the earliest 360° photographic panoramas of Melbourne, from the roof of the Club, a building which still stands today, making its preservation and discovery a significant milestone for us. Views of Melbourne / J.H. Kerr. https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/233330919

Is it a 360° panoramic view? This was the first question that we asked ourselves. Because of the difficulty of the wet plate collodion photographic process, mid-1800’s photographers not only had to carry a large wooden box camera and sturdy tripod, they also had to carry glass plates coated with collodion solution, as well as a number of chemicals to sensitise the plates before exposure and then “fix” the image immediately afterwards. This meant that panoramic images captured from an elevated position were at the top level of difficulty.

Inspection of thumbnail images from National Library of Australia (NLA) proved that the images formed a 360° panorama, and although degraded by time, detail should be sufficiently recoverable. Using grant funding, we acquired the full resolution digital scans from NLA for use in our project.

With very careful digital enhancement we were able to retain the character of the image and also reveal some exquisite detail. You can  clearly see the houses of Parliament, St Patricks Cathedral and other buildings and are able to zoom into more detail within the virtual tour. In the next step, the images were rotated and cropped to retain part of the frame and descriptive handwriting and a small paper margin between them. The 11 photographs were then joined into a long strip to form a high resolution 360° panorama, 55,000×4,600px in size. If printed as a banner this would be 11.6m wide.

The Virtual Tour Skin: The tour is wrapped into a “skin” for the viewer. A modern map grounds the viewer in the present, familiar city and allows them to zoom in or out of the map, drag it to a larger/ smaller size or close it completely. Interesting buildings have labels, which can be switched off. Close all control bar functions including the map to show a clean image.

Building names  have been gathered from various sources: The book held at the State Library of Victoria (SLV), “Melbourne Club, A Social History  1838-1918 by Paul De Serville, gives an excellent description of the city over the ages. Buildings have also been identified from the many other old images of the city that we have used in our virtual tour through the ages.

Non-Seamless stitching of the images

We have chosen not to “stitch” or “morph” joining images, in order to preserve the integrity of the photographer’s work. By presenting it in the “Cyclorama” format for viewing we also “go back in time”. The viewer must accept the extreme difficulties of photography in those days. The photographer moved around on the roof of the building, changing his viewpoint and therefore the perspective. The lens may have tilted down for one frame and slightly up for another. We have to accept that and admire their fortitude. Notice the shift in the horizon as you move around.