The title of this film is partly misleading: although it does give us a view of Blackwell's Island in 1903, it is not a panoramic shot but filmed from a boat speeding along the river alongside the bank. The camera shows us a bleak landscape - emphasised perhaps by the grainy quality of the film - littered with buildings but only a few briefly-glimpsed people. The buildings the boat passes are described in the film's summary as a lighthouse, brewery, lunatic asylum, workhouse, almshouse, prison and charity hospital. It's not exactly the most interesting of subjects but obviously has worth as a social document. It would be interesting to see a modern film retracing that long ago journey to see just how much the area has changed.