-Panorama Bank- mechanical bank c. 1876

Curator: Here we have what is described as a "Panorama Bank" mechanical bank, believed to have been crafted around 1876 by J. Butler. It’s currently held in the Minneapolis Institute of Art collection. What strikes you about this unusual mixed-media piece? Editor: Well, formally speaking, the emphatic use of color. That bright, almost garish, red roof against the faded, nearly pastel, green body really commands your attention. And then there's this inherent tension given that it is a miniature structure: a sort of toy model building for playing house with money. Curator: Yes, the visual tension works to conjure notions of home, hearth, and family while embedding the financial institutions right in the domestic space. The bank takes on a familiar shape and promotes saving as part of childhood. It recalls those little model train sets of childhood. Editor: Exactly! And that quaint print above the entrance–the figuration of children playing idyllically in a field! The semiotics of naive pastoral scenes evoke an imagined and safe historical setting that speaks to American values. What sort of panorama are we talking about here? Curator: That framed print implies both a "snapshot" of an era as well as a panoramic vista when viewed from within the home space. So we're witnessing both temporal and spatial landscapes. Its function as a mechanical bank would have been rather captivating for a child: depositing coins animated the internal mechanisms which must have been quite theatrical. Editor: The bank also feels quite architectural! The repeated window frames give an aestheticized structural sensibility even as it looks as though the roof can come right off like the lid of a teapot! So are you telling me, there’s movement inside? Is the child activating machinery to view another world in miniature through their savings? Curator: Precisely! Saving literally creates and animates a personal panoramic experience. Saving and investment is tied up with active imagination and discovery! Editor: So the physical interaction completes the formal dynamic–giving the structure a performative purpose as it’s moved from stasis to function and vice-versa, creating the panorama that the building seems to promise? Quite thought provoking. Curator: It is, and for me it points to how saving, accumulation, and participation within societal institutions were made visible and even enticing to children. Editor: Very compelling, thank you.