I recently came across Thomas B. Lamb’s Kiddyland Movies. At first, I thought I would simply use one to post a quick “Merry Christmas” but then as so often happens, I started looking at the image closely, my curiosity lit up, and the questions started. I decided to make an album of moving panoramas and related media to gather materials while I gather my thoughts. 

In the meantime, Happy Holidays! Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope you enjoy this Kiddyland Movies detail as much as I do.

It comes from a full-page image in an issue of Good Housekeeping from December of 1922. The page is a kids’ section, meant to be pulled out and cut up according to instructions. As you can see, the lower images make one long strip when pasted together. The strip is slowly pulled from the cut out slots in the upper image to make a “movie.” It is a small scale moving panorama. 

Moving panoramas were a popular entertainment in the late 19th and early 20th century. They could be small scale for the home, or large scale productions with music, actors, and dancers. The Library has some extraordinary examples of moving panoramas, including Thomas Nast’s Grand Caricaturama.

Like other art forms, print media and ephemera, they tell us a lot about the time in which they were made. Take a look in my album Crankies, moving panoramas, and moving pictures for some examples of these entertainments, large and small. Please feel free to suggest your own additions. 

The Kiddyland images are fun to “read” as they contain lots of tiny details, similar to the Richard Scarry books I loved as a young child, and which my own children pored over. Take for instance this Kiddyland Arctic Expedition. The early 1920s were a time of intense exploration of the Arctic by American and European expeditions. What aspects of these scenes are stereotypes? Which are possibly accurate? Kiddyland Makes a Magazine shows the process of making an issue of a magazine like Good Housekeeping. What does it reveal about work culture in America in the 1920s? The illustrator, Thomas B. Lamb, is a fascinating figure. While he created these whimsical entertainments for children, he was also an industrial designer, who was one of the people responsible for ushering in Universal Design. You can think of him whenever you use a tool or appliance with a wedge-lock handle. More about Lamb in this fascinating exhibition at the Hagley Museum and Library. 

Have you ever made a moving panorama? I can imagine it would be a fun project to go along with storytelling. The Crankie Factory has lots of ideas for creating these projects, and some beautiful examples that include paper cutting, shadow plays, puppetry and other techniques. 

Obviously, I have lots of avenues to explore in the New Year! I haven’t even touched on advances in chromolithography that allow for amusements like The Motograph Moving Picture book, or the fascination with natural history, or magic lantern shows and phantasmagoria…. Here’s to another year of curiosity in 2022!

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