Myriorama

In 1825, Brès would produce the ultimate myriorama—a 36-card componium Pittoresque.

Popular in the 1820s, often as a children's toy, the myriorama (Greek: many views) originated in Germany.

Typically, myriorama are vertical segments, but, in my activity kit, they are aligned horizontally to accommodate nine postcards which are cut into three segments each and are spiral bound.

In September 1900, the Ipswich Journal reported that a demonstration of Poole's Myriorama had taken place at the public hall: 'Whenever Mr Joseph Poole comes to Ipswich with his famous myriorama, the public can rely on seeing something new, and this is the secret of its popularity.'

Shows of this kind were hugely popular – the Poole family had six separate Myriorama shows on tour around the country in the mid-1890s – nowadays it might be called 'infotainment'.

Panoramas, be they a myriorama or a diorama type, provided audiences with an immersive visual experience and were hugely popular.

Before He spake however, something seemed to say, Or intimate, that one superior mind Was near, or coming, and a view of that Majestic myriorama plainly told that half at least were stirred by some Unknown, though vigorous and potent cause.

Molly's myriorama fuses these elements— spectacle and drama, commentary and song— in her complex, revolving mental kaleidescope.

It didn't take long to realize that I'd blundered onto a metaphor for building my book. I would be a myriorama, scenes from an endless landscape, across both time and place. It doesn't matter whether the book that emerges out of this process ends up being the prose equivalent of a myriorama; what matters is that I have a structure that serves to set this journey in motion.