An extract below from the booklet by the late Gawin Kirkham written 1888.  "History and Explanation of the picture "The Broad and The Narrow Way".

"It was soon evident that there was a living power in the Picture; and I conceived the idea of expounding it in public. For this purpose I had an
enlarged copy painted, succeeded by three others, each larger than its predecessor. The last—the one I now use—was painted by Henry Bevis, scene painter, 140, Pentonville Hill, London, and is nine feet wide and twelve feet long. It is painted in dulled oils, suspended on an ingenious frame, and lighted by a "new quintuple dual illuminator "—five duplex lamps in one - (both invented by Mr. Leonard Todd) placed at its foot. From these copies I have lectured in public 909 times in eighteen years to tens of thousands of people." 

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To get some idea of the scale involved - I thought it was worthwhile to have a 3d picture with the dimensions 9ft x 12ft.  And also the figure of Gawin Kirkham standing near.

After previous versions were enlarged, it appears Mr. Kirkham had settled with a picture 12ft x 9ft for Open-Air preaching and indoor meetings. As yet I haven't worked out what kind of frame was constructed or what the "new quintuple dual illuminator " would have looked like so I left them out, but the picture serves to show the scale involved....the challenge of finding the right picture size...may have been determined by the size of the crowds that gathered. For large crowds the size of 12ft x 9ft in a public place would be big enough for many people to gather comfortably without being cramped. 

These were the days before projectors, television, cinema so a very large picture on display would have been quite an innovation. But Mr Kirkham was also a very gifted and powerful speaker ......so the combination would have worked very well. 

© Peter N Millward - 2018