Panorama Wagons

2/2/2022 - Work in Progress

New information has come to light!  That means my historian friends have sent me more bits and pieces of information.  So I am back at it again.  Hope to have this page finished soon.  More coffee!

H. D. Stone's Advertising Wagon - 1893

In 1893, H. D. Stone created an advertising wagon.  This is one of several that were patented around that time.    The scroll was connected to the movement of the wheel axles  so that when the wagon was pulled, the scroll advanced.  There was also a switch to disconnect the scroll from the axles so it could be cranked by hand when the wagon was not in motion.

This would be great for a parade or a march.  You could be the first in over 100 years to use one!   I really hope someone builds on and if you do,  please let me know. 

Image, courtesy of Professor Russell Potter.
Image courtesy of Professor Russell Potter.
This is a section of the patent for Stone's advertising wagon. Thank you to Josh Larios for sending to me!

American Revolving Advertising Wagon Company Advertisement - 1896

Many thanks to Suzanne Wray for sending to me!

This is an advertisement for another advertising wagon.

Possibly the most unique advertising medium ever invented is being exhibited by Mr. George H. Hollidge, vice president and general salesman of the American Revolving Advertising Wagon Co.

The device is really a traveling panorama. The handsomely built wagon is filled with a canvas 160 to 200 feet long by 7 ft. high. A gearing, attached by a sprocket to the wheel, serves to keep revolving the canvas on which the "ads" and pictures are painted.

The remarkable display of swiftly moving color shown by the model is a criterion of the attention the full sized wagon will attract on the streets. It is something the public will give consideration.

1890s - Civil War Museum Wagon by J. W. Sperry

This is a cropped broadside for the Museum Wagon.

In the 1890s, J. W. Sperry of Weeping Willow, Nebraska, created a Museum on Wagon Wheels depicting paintings of the Civil War.  He toured Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota and the Dakotas. Sperry was a Civil War veteran enlisted in Company H of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry.

At each stop of the tour, Sperry would "erect an enclosure of canvas sheeting" and charged 5 and 10 cents admission to his "War" museum. Four pairs of special viewers were installed on the side on the Museum Wagon.  A boy was hired at each stop to turn a crank at the end of the wagon creating a moving show of seven Civil War scenes. Civil war artifacts were collected by Sperry and displayed in the traveling museum wagons.

This information is from the 1967  newspaper article 'Museum' of J.W. Sperry of Weeping Water Fair Feature, The Plattsmouth Journal (Plattsmouth, Nebraska), Aug 28, 1967.  The museum wagon was to be displayed at the Weeping Water Fair in 1967. Thank you to Ron Easterday, from the Magic Lantern Society of the US and Canada,  for sending this newspaper article to me!

THANKS AND GRATITUDE

I am grateful to my historian friends who send me things!  This page is made up entirely of bits and pieces of information from them. Thanks to Professor Russell Potter, Suzanne Wray, Josh Larios and Ron Easterday.

 

This page first created in 2018, revised 2022 -  Sue Truman ❤