National Archives of Australia has recently conserved and digitised a collection of over 180 panoramic photographs. These incredible images were taken between 1907 and 1928 and connect us with Australian events, people and places from the past.
Development
The first panoramic photographs were created in the 1840s by assembling multiple images into single scenes. By 1898, specialised panoramic cameras such as the Al-Vista were being mass produced in America.
The renowned American panoramic photographer Mervin Vaniman visited Australia in 1903–04, further popularising the artform.
Australian photographers including Robert Henry Ward and William Charles Farran, and Augustus George Sands recognised potential commercial opportunities. They applied for artistic copyright then exhibited and sold souvenir booklets and large-format prints of their work.
Conservation
The panoramas in this collection were submitted to the Commonwealth Registrar of Copyrights as large prints, rather than negatives.
National Archives has recently completed conserving and digitising the panoramas so they could be accessible online.

The panoramas were originally stored tightly rolled. When the panoramas were assessed, some had been eaten through by insects. Conservators carefully unfurled the rolls to clean the front and back in sections. Surface dirt was delicately removed before the prints were humidified and flattened. The clean, flat images were scanned at a high resolution.