Designed to exploit the panorama craze with tales of the high seas, the Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World by Caleb Purrington and Benjamin Russell, completed in 1848, transported audiences into the shoes of the yankee whaleman who embarks on a journey from New Bedford, Massachusetts across the world via ship in search of whales. The work is painted with distemper on cotton sheeting. Four rolls are over eight feet high and 300 feet long each, creating a work that is 1,295 feet in length overall.
