The Minnesota Marine Art Museum (MMAM) exhibition “A Spectacle in Motion: The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ’Round the World” will close on Sunday, March 1, at 5 p.m. Before the exhibition concludes, the public is invited to attend the Grand Panorama Rewind on Sunday, March 1, at 11 a.m. Included with general admission and requiring no registration, this special presentation offers a rare opportunity to experience the monumental painting in motion as it unfolds in reverse. The program marks visitors’ final opportunity to see the work on view at MMAM.
Measuring 1,275 feet in length, “The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ’Round the World” is the longest painting in the United States. Because of its extraordinary scale, the panorama is housed on four massive rolls that are rotated while the museum is closed. Prior to rotation, each roll must be carefully rewound to its starting position. During the Grand Panorama Rewind, MMAM staff and volunteers will rewind the fourth and final roll, revealing the entire last section in one continuous viewing—the only occasion when this full segment can be seen at once.
As the panorama rewinds, MMAM curators will provide live narration, guiding visitors through scenes as they appear in reverse order. This interpretive experience offers insight into both the artwork’s imagery and its original function as popular entertainment in the mid-19th century.
Completed in 1848 by New Bedford, Massachusetts artists Benjamin Russell and Caleb Purrington, the panorama was conceived as a commercial spectacle during America’s panorama craze. Russell, a former whaler, drew upon his 42-month voyage aboard the ship Kutusoff from 1841 to 1844. Together, Russell and Purrington translated these experiences into a monumental moving painting designed to tour theaters and public halls throughout the eastern and central United States.
Before the advent of cinema, moving panoramas offered immersive visual storytelling that combined illusion, spectacle, and depictions of distant places. “The Grand Panorama” portrays a mid-19th-century whaling voyage, illustrating people, ports, ships, wildlife, and dramatic events encountered in locations including the Azores, Cape Verde, Brazil, Tahiti, and Hawaii. Blending firsthand observation with elements of history and imagination, the work reflects the perspectives and storytelling traditions of its time.
This exhibition project was organized in partnership with the New Bedford Whaling Museum and is presented by the Minnesota Marine Art Museum. MMAM extends special thanks to the lead exhibition sponsor Hiawatha Broadband Communications, Inc., and to the Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support.
