A cyclorama is a panoramic image on the inside of a cylindrical platform, designed to give viewers standing in the middle of the cylinder a 360° view, and also a building designed to show a panoramic image. The intended effect is to make viewers, surrounded by the panoramic image, feel as if they were standing in the midst of the place depicted in the image.
Paul Philippoteaux painting the Gettysburg Cyclorama circa 1883. From the archives of Gettysburg National Military Park
Battle of Gettysburg Cyclorama building at the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exhibition in 1909
A panorama is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was coined in the 18th century by the English painter Robert Barker to describe his panoramic paintings of Edinburgh and London. The motion-picture term panning is derived from panorama.
Panorama of the inner courtyard of the Great Mosque of Kairouan, in Tunisia
"Vue circulaire des montagnes qu‘on decouvre du sommet du Glacier de Buet", from Horace-Benedict de Saussure, Voyage dans les Alpes, précédés d'un essai sur l'histoire naturelle des environs de Geneve. Neuchatel, 1779–96, pl. 8.
A panorama of London by Robert Barker, 1792
360-degree panorama picture of the center courtyard of the Sony Center at the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. This picture was calculated from 126 individual photos using autostitch
