John Rowson Smith (1810 – 1864) was an American painter and a pioneer in the creation of moving panoramas. His ''Leviathan Panorama of the Mississippi River'' was created in the 1840s, covered 20,000 square feet of canvas, and depicted approximately 2,000 miles of landscape along the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

that spanned nine states. The panorama was displayed at theaters in the United States and Europe from 1848 to 1852.

Early life

He was born in 1810 in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. Most of his childhood was spent in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

before he moved to

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

in 1830. He was taught painting by his father John Rubens Smith. His grandfather was the British painter and mezzotinter John Raphael Smith.

Career

Smith began as a scenery painter for the National Theater in Philadelphia. He also painted theatrical scenery in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, and

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

. He was a pioneer in the creation of moving panoramas and produced the ''Leviathan Panorama of the Mississippi River'' which covered 20,000 square feet of canvas and depicted approximately 2,000 miles of landscape along the river across nine states. The panorama was divided into three parts: the "Corn Region" depicted the head of the river to the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

; the "Cotton Region" depicted from the Ohio River to

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia, Louisiana, Natchez was ...

; and the "Sugar Region" depicted from Natchez to the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

. The moving panorama was displayed in

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1848 and then throughout major cities in Europe from 1849 to 1852. Smith's panorama business partner was Richard Risley Carlisle, an acrobat who performed under the moniker Professor Risley. He and Smith claimed to be the originator of the Mississippi moving panorama, however other rivaling panoramas of the Mississippi were created by John Banvard, Henry Lewis, Leon D. Pomerede and Samuel B. Stockwell. The panoramists competed for audience and made exaggerated claims about their work. Smith falsely claimed that his panorama was four miles in length. None of these works, including Smith's, survived to the current day. He returned to theatrical scenery painting and died in Philadelphia in 1864. He was interred at

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery, also called Laurel Hill East to distinguish it from the affiliated West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, Bala Cynwyd, is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls, Philadelphia, East Falls neighborhood ...

References

Additional reading

*McDermott, John Francis,
The Lost Panoramas of the Mississippi
', University of Chicago Press, 1958 {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, John Rowson 1810 births 1864 deaths 19th-century American painters 19th-century American male artists American male painters American scenic designers Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Painters from Boston Painters from Brooklyn Painters from Philadelphia