A design presumed to be for 'The Warfare Review, 1805-1915'. The notes here cover this and the general information that applies to all the Poole Myriorama drawings given to the Museum by J.K.S Poole in 1988 (nos. PAF6204 to PAF6220).

The Poole family, based on Malmesbury and Gloucester, were the last proprietors of travelling moving panorama shows, which having earlier used the word 'diorama' to describe - reflecting its giant pop-up perspectives and transparency effects - they renamed 'myrioramas' from 1883. There were several members and generations of the family involved, and eventually many shows on the road at the same time. The Pooles themselves were originally musicians working from about 1848 in the band for the earlier diorama shows of Moses Gompertz (c.1814-83, who incidentally helped finish off many of Thomas Luny's marine works for sale after his death in 1837). They began their own business in partnership with Anthony Young in about 1863 and it not only involved dioramas - accompanied by music and commentary lectures, as was usually the case for such shows - but associated musical and variety acts. Later, early movie interludes were introduced and as film gradually superseded its panoramic precursors like the myriorama, the Pooles just as seamlessly moved on to become successful cinema proprietors and managers. The last performance of a Poole Myriorama (by then only being done as Christmas events) was at the Synod Hall, Edinburgh, in January 1929 under the last member of the family to be actively involved with them, John R. Poole. His son John Kenneth Stafford Poole (1911-98), himself a great showman generally known as 'Jim', took over the family cinema business on his father's death in 1950. His retirement as managing owner of the Edinburgh 'Cameo' brought the family showmanship dynasty to an end, though he remained a mine of information on it and, as a well-known figure in cinema was subject to several warm obituaries on his death (e.g. by David Robinson, the film critic and historian, in the 'Guardian', 21 January 1998). His recollections were largely encapsulated in the book 'Poole's Myriorama: a story of travelling panorama showmen' by Hudson John Powell, another member of the family, published for the author by ELSP, Bradford on Avon, 2002 (ISBN 1 903341 82 5). This is an information-rich and very well illustrated account although with some of the deficiencies common in such self-published labours of family history. It is largely the source of the notes on the NMM items here (PAF6204 to PAF6220), all of which were presented by Jim Poole subsequent to the 1988 'Panoramania' exhibition at the Barbican through his contact with Ralph Hyde (its prime organizer). The 'Panoramania' catalogue (ed. R. Hyde: Barbican/ Trefoil) reproduces a number of Poole items.

All the NMM drawings are presumed to be by Arthur Clarence Rogers (1865-1941), the Pooles' principal scene-painter around 1900, though other artists were involved including his younger brother, Ernest. Just before his death Rogers wrote a 97-page typescript memoir of the Poole enterprise, extensively used in Powell's book. From this it appears that all the NMM drawings are from a Poole Myriorama called 'The Warfare Review, 1805 -1915' of which Rogers wrote as follows:

'This, the biggest attempt at Myrioramic spectacle, was conceived by Mr John R. Poole and carried out in collaboration with Mr A. C. Rogers. It was a series of pictures and elaborate sets with mechanical models commencing with Trafalgar and then on to Waterloo, Indian Mutiny, Russo-Turkish War and other campaigns up to the Boer War, and finished with an imaginary 'battle in the air'. It is remarkable how this proved prophetic. The contest between airships and aeroplanes which, of course, at that time had never happened was all realised in the Great War'.

A small caveat has to be included, that - as Powell's book shows - earlier myrioramas also included such things as Trafalgar and the Bombardment of Alexandria of 1882, some of which were recreated in 1915. [Note that the above is a slightly edited version of longer notes in the database, omitting private source information.]