John Rowson Smith

John Rowson Smith (1810 – 1864) was an American painter and a pioneer in the creation of moving panoramas.

His Leviathan Panorama of the Mississippi River was created in the 1840s, covered 20,000 square feet of canvas, and depicted approximately 2,000 miles of landscape along the Mississippi River that spanned nine states.

[2][3] He was a pioneer in the creation of moving panoramas[4] and produced the Leviathan Panorama of the Mississippi River[5] which covered 20,000 square feet of canvas and depicted approximately 2,000 miles of landscape along the river across nine states.

The moving panorama was displayed in Troy, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1848 and then throughout major cities in Europe from 1849 to 1852.

He and Smith claimed to be the originator of the Mississippi moving panorama,[7] however other rivaling panoramas of the Mississippi were created by John Banvard,[8] Henry Lewis, Leon D. Pomerede and Samuel B.