Calliope! The wonderful Operonicon or Steam Car of the Muses, as it appears in the gorgeous street pagent [sic] of the Great European Zoological Association! ... – Vintage Wall Art
![Calliope! The wonderful Operonicon or Steam Car of the Muses, as it appears in the gorgeous street pagent [sic] of the Great European Zoological Association! ..., 1874 — historic image](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/de/de1d37eb3f23-L.webp)
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
Calliope! The wonderful Operonicon or Steam Car of the Muses, as it appears in the gorgeous street pagent [sic] of the Great European Zoological Association! ... comes to life in this historic image, reproduced from the original with every detail intact. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.
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Calliope! The wonderful Operonicon or Steam Car of the Muses, as it appears in the gorgeous street pagent [sic] of the Great European Zoological Association! ...
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Few parade wagons of the 1870s came with a name as grand as this one, which bills a steam-powered "Steam Car of the Muses" moving through the street procession of the Great European Zoological Association. The calliope, a keyboard instrument that sounds through steam whistles, was developed by Joshua Stoddard of Worcester, Massachusetts, in the 1850s, and by the 1870s showmen were mounting them on wagons so the music could draw crowds before the animals appeared. The sheet's flourishing language reflects the hyperbole of period street advertising, when the parade itself was the main form of publicity.
| Created / published | 1874 |
|---|---|
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 8,073 × 6,312 px · prints to 27 × 21 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | 1 |
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