This beautiful panoramic image (circa 1920) is the first acquisition of 2009 for the Dorset Historical Society. Zorah Virginia Hester, who now lives in Tuscon, Arizona, gave it to the Society. The house with the elegant porch to the far left in the photograph was in her family for many years and she can remember visiting there as a child. We are looking at Kent Hill in Dorset and the home of J. H. Bowman. The hills in the distance are Mother Myrick on the left and West Mountain on the right.

Panoramic views were very popular at this time. If one didn't have a panoramic camera capable of making a single seamless image, one had to make several smaller negatives and piece together individual prints from them. This spectacular view is created from four prints perfectly aligned to create accurate perspectives throughout the landscape. It was most likely made by an amateur photographer with a lot of patience! We are very grateful to have the photograph in the collection and add it to several other panoramic views of Dorset we have from the same time period.

Susanne Rappaport
Curator