WW I Poster: Has anyone seen one of these before?

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swampdog

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I've had this old panoramic poster or picture for about forty years. Its title is: "The March to the Battlefield or Canada's Men on the Way, 1914-1915." Markings include: Copyright 1915 by The Montreal Star Publishing Co. Ltd and By Permission of the Panoramic Camera Company, Toronto.

It's about 20" x 46" in size and is made of heavy, white paper. The poster includes two panoramic scenes, with one above the other: one is of a large number of white tents set up in an open area, and the other is of hundreds and hundreds of mounted cavalry men in the foreground and infantry men in the background. My hunch is that the pictures were taken somewhere in Quebec prior to the troops heading overseas. The upper corners of the poster include pictures of two men: Field Marshall Earl Kitchener, Sec. of State for War, and Field Marshall John French, Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Forces.

The condition of the poster is fair to good. It has a few tears but is complete and in overall good condition for a paper item nearly 100 years of age.

I'm wondering how collectible this might be and if it has any value.
 
You guys are quick!

OK, I was feeling lazy. Since I don't have a panoramic camera, here are three pics. (I'm trying to spot a shiny, new Canadian Contract 1911 on someone's hip . . .)

Center of poster


Left side


Right side
 
That is an incredible photo. You should really do a high resolution scan and have it printed on a large format printer and offer it for sale. This would be a very nice addition to my reloading area.
I'll bet few military museums have anything like this. It would make a great backdrop in a militaria display case.
 
swampdog said:
...I'm wondering how collectible this might be and if it has any value.
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I don't know how collectible it is but I can tell you that if I could gain possession, I would collect it. I.e. I would keep it. And certainly it has some value. I don't know what price to put on it, but if I could afford it, I would pay.
 
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mikerock said:
Swampdog,

My friend's wife in St. Johns digitally copies or restores one of a kind photographs like these. If you're interested PM me.
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You could sell a high resolution image on a CD to individuals who could arrange for their own printing. I think it's an important image that should be made available.
 
Good ideas. I wonder if copyright issues could come up if I had it scanned and made copies. If nothing else, I should put it in a frame with protective glass and hang it up somewhere.

After posting the pictures here, we did a search on the internet and found the same thing for sale on eBay, in Ontario. Obviously, other copies survive. It's eBay item # 260720088267 in case someone wants it.
 
There were alot of these style of panorama pictures/posters done in WW1, the fleet being popular as well, not to mention certain battalions etc. They show up somewhat commonly, and usually are under 100$, in a frame.
 
Most of these were produced on one or another of the panoramic cameras then in use, such as Kodak's "CIRKUT" models. They were available in different film sizes. On some of them you could run through a whole roll of 122 film (usually 6 exposures, each 5 inches long, height was 3-1/2 inches: postcard size) in a single shot!

Panoramic cameras are still being built, but they are just as expensive today (comparatively) as they were a century ago. I did see a more-or-less reasonable one advertised by Freestyle Sales Co. in LA just a while back; they have all kinds of strange photographic equipment, including kits for many 'obsolete' processes, including Talbotype, Cyanotype, Wet-plate, Dry-plate and so forth. They have a website which is sort of neat. I think my next pension cheque likely will go directly there: have to feed the Graflex somehow! (It hasn't had enough film since it was riding around in a Lancaster, doing low-level bomb-damage assessments; original owner got a Leica from a German POW, pretty much switched to 35mm, so it is still in nice shape.)
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I'm pretty sure I saw a framed picture of that, or very like that, in an antique store in Vernon a few weeks back.
 
Cavalry. To quote a Japanese general from the Russian-Japanese war. "If there is a machine gun in the field, all the cavalry can do is dismount and cook rice"

Oh by the way, there was ONE U.S. cavalry charge in WW1. They got halfway to the german lines before the germans recovered their surprise and opened up with the maxims.

Unlike tanks, horses are NOT bullet proof.
 
John Sukey said:
Cavalry. To quote a Japanese general from the Russian-Japanese war. "If there is a machine gun in the field, all the cavalry can do is dismount and cook rice"

Oh by the way, there was ONE U.S. cavalry charge in WW1. They got halfway to the german lines before the germans recovered their surprise and opened up with the maxims.

Unlike tanks, horses are NOT bullet proof.
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True, however also unlike tanks of the time they're fast!
 
Towards the end of WWI there was a charge by the Canadian Cavalry Brigade at the Battle of Moreuil Wood. Likely one of the last such charges of that war.

h ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Moreuil_Wood
 
stevebc said:
I'm pretty sure I saw a framed picture of that, or very like that, in an antique store in Vernon a few weeks back.
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Not often that I quote myself, but I was in Vernon yesterday and saw that picture at "Blast From The Past" antiques. The pic has some old water damage mostly in the upper left corner, the frame is facked, and they're asking $195.00.
 
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