Discover the mysteries behind the Gettysburg Cyclorama
Visitors walk through the panoramic painting by anthropologist Noah Coburn and artist Gregory Thielker, which was inspired in part by the Gettysburg Cyclorama. (Photo: Clare Becker)
(Gettysburg) — The Gettysburg Cyclorama, a 42-foot high and 377-foot long painting of Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, was part of the grand opening of the Gettysburg National Military Park visitor center in 2008, but there’s more to its story.
Chris Brenneman, licensed battlefield guide and author of “The Gettysburg Cyclorama: The Turning Point of the Civil War on Canvas,” offers little-known facts about the painting and its history at the Cumberland Township Historical Society’s final presentation of the year today.
The “all-encompassing” work of art took over a year and a half to be completed, and was part of a popular cultural entertainment tradition in America and Europe in the 1800s.
“These massive, oil-on-canvas paintings were displayed in special auditoriums and enhanced with landscaped foregrounds sometimes featuring trees, grasses, fences and even life-sized figures,” according to the National Park Service, which purchased the cyclorama in the 1940s before moving it to the Gettysburg National Military Park. “The result was a three-dimensional effect that surrounded viewers who stood on a central platform, literally placing them in the center of the great historic scene.”
French artist Paul Philippoteaux first painted a “Battle of Gettysburg” cyclorama that opened in Chicago in 1883.
“Visitors were awed by the painting’s spectacular realism,” the National Park Service story reads. “Veterans of the battle, including General John Gibbon whose troops repulsed Pickett’s Division on July 3, wrote of its splendor and realism.”
Phillipoteaux painted a second Gettysburg cyclorama, which opened in Boston in 1884 and was purchased and moved to Gettysburg before being sold to the National Park Service and landing in its final resting place in the Gettysburg National Military Park.
Related: Photos: Volunteers honor the fallen with Christmas wreaths
Brenneman and his co-authors will discuss the mysteries behind the cyclorama, and provide books to purchase — with a signing following the event.
If You Go:
Where: The sanctuary of the Church of the Brethren, 1710 Biglerville Road, Gettysburg
When: Mon. Dec. 5, 7 p.m.
Cost: Free
This article is part of a partnership between WITF and the Hanover Evening Sun.
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