Myriorama originally referred to a set of illustrated cards that 19th century children could arrange and re-arrange, forming different pictures.
Later in the century the name was also applied to performances using a sequence of impressive visual effects to entertain and inform an audience.
The word myriorama was invented to mean myriad pictures, following the model of panorama, diorama, cosmorama and other novelties.
[2] The early myrioramas were cards with people, buildings, and other images on compatible backgrounds, and could be laid out in any order, allowing a child to create a variety of imaginary landscapes.
Clark's "second series" myriorama, an "Italian landscape", was produced in 1824,[3] the same year as a similar set of English cards called a panoramacopia created by drawing teacher T.T.Dales.