Camera Obscura Illustration from Anastasius Kircher's Ars Magna, 1646. Reproduced from John H. Hammond, The Camera Obscura- A Chronicle.

 
For an introduction to the Camera Obscura apparatus and its cultural history, see Jack and Beverly Wilgus's informative Magic Mirror of Life.
Excerpts from Volume 17 of Della Porta's Magiae Naturalis (1558) describing the Camera Obscura effect.
Excerpt from Jonathan Crary's Techniques of the Observer, (Chapter 2, The Camera Obscura and its Subject.)

James Wyld's "Great Globe" georama, displayed in London from 1851 to 1862. Reproduced from Guilinana Bruno, Atlas of Emotion- Journeys in Art, Architecture and Film.

 

A diverse array of "oramas" and "oscopes" occupy a well-documented history as "pre-cinematic" optical apparata. A useful online catalog is available from the Media Relics exhibition, Budapest 1996.

Some of these inventions, such as the dioramas described here, explicitly combined "fantastic" scenes with natural daylighting.

A contemporary Camera Obscura at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. http://www.up.ac.za/academic/discover/camera/obscura.htm