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The Gettysburg Cyclorama on Exhibit Until About 1895

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The Gettysburg Cyclorama on Exhibit Until About 1895 The Gettysburg Cyclorama on exhibit until about 1895. It was the largest B painting in the world at 50-feet high O (including the faux terrain and sky) and 410- S by Don Johnson and Sue Boardman T feet long. It consisted of more than 20,000 O It was 113 years ago that Emmet W. square feet of canvas and weighed more than N McConnell, the “Panorama King,” took what 12,000 pounds, carrying 7,000 pounds of historians and art critics believed was Paul paint alone. Admission was 50 cents for adults Philippoteaux’s original Battle of Gettysburg and 25 cents for children under 10 years. The painting to cities across America and around talented and esteemed artist received the world. The exhibitions spanned over three $200,000 from Willoughby for the painting. decades until the final showing at the Texas The painting was unveiled to great acclaim. Centennial Expo in 1936. The painting was then To view the cyclorama, the spectator entered placed in storage in a Chicago warehouse. the rotunda building, walked up a stairway to a Eventually it was given over to the Wake Forest circular platform, and in a moment was in the C H University Fine Arts Department where it is middle of the scenes. The spectator was I presently stored. We have uncovered what we surrounded by the landscape painting and C believe to be conclusive evidence that the experienced the illusion he was being swept A painting is not a Philippoteaux painting, but a into the action. A domed glass roof provided G very good version created by a different artist. natural lighting and a projecting umbrella-like O The Battle of Gettysburg has been ceiling over the platform ensured the only sky dramatically depicted in story, song, and art. the spectator saw was the one in the painting. Even to this day, the most life-like and dramatic The public response was overwhelming representation of the battle is accomplished and Philippoteaux was quickly pressured to through the art of a panorama painting. In 1881, create versions of his American magnum opus Philippoteaux was commissioned by Chicago for display in other cities. He completed three businessman Charles A. Willoughby to create other versions, each one about 40-feet high a panorama painting of the battle. He spent (including faux terrain) by about 365-feet several months at Gettysburg making elaborate long. In December 1884, the first version of N sketches while studying the battle action based the Battle of Gettysburg opened in Boston. E upon war records, postwar photographs, and This painting has recently undergone a multi- W interviews with Generals Winfield Scott million dollar restoration, the second major Hancock, Abner Doubleday, Alexander S. restoration in its 124 years of existence. After Y O Webb, and other eyewitnesses to “Pickett’s a turbulent history of survival, the painting R Charge.” In addition, he engaged photographer made a change of venue to the new K William H. Tipton to take panoramic working Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor photographs of the battlefield terrain from atop Center and Museum in September 2008. a 60-foot-high wooden tower. These In January 1886, the second version of the photographs are in the collection in the Battle of Gettysburg opened in Brooklyn, Gettysburg National Military Park archives. New York, and in October 1886, the third Philippoteaux returned to Brussels and version opened in Philadelphia. These last two supervised a team of 16 artists. His father paintings no longer exist. By the mid-1890s P Felix assisted in the work while it was being the popularity of panorama paintings was H completed. The artists offered different coming to its end. Today there are only three I specialties: landscape artists for the scenery, Civil War panorama paintings known to L A animal painters for the horses, figure painters survive. Two are on public display, Philip- D and portraitists for the officers and soldiers. poteaux’s Boston painting of the Battle of E The artists took certain liberties, the depiction Gettysburg (the one at Gettysburg), and Heine L of haystacks being one of them. Philip- and Lohr’s Battle of Atlanta, on display in P poteaux’s haystacks have a Belgian look that city. A second Gettysburg painting, not H I rather than the look of those from on display, belongs to Wake Forest A Pennsylvania farmland. Painters also liked to University’s Department of Fine Arts. Until give themselves an inconspicuous part of the this writing, it was believed that Philip- heroic scene. Looking carefully at the poteaux’s original panorama painting of the paintings, one will find Paul Philippoteaux Battle of Gettysburg, the one exhibited in poised leaning against a tree, sporting his red Chicago from 1883 until 1895, was the W beard, wearing the uniform of a Union officer painting presently stored at Wake Forest A and holding a saber in his right hand resting University. No other Civil War panorama K E across his knee. Before being brought to Chicago, this “giant of giant paintings” was RIGHT: These comparison views, and the ones F displayed along the length of a Brussels street. to follow, show four known Philippoteaux O The original Gettysburg cyclorama, versions of the Battle of Gettysburg, and the R known as the Chicago painting, opened to the E one at Wake Forest University. The Boston S public in October 1883, where it remained version is the one on display at Gettysburg. T BLUE & GRAY MAGAZINE—FALL 2008 51 B paintings are known to exist. Some were Here is what we know. Emmet W. O destroyed by fires, some were painted over, McConnell acquired a Battle of Gettysburg S and many others deteriorated during panorama sometime between 1888 and 1901. T O transportation and constant exhibiting. Some Called the “Panorama King,” at one time N were rolled up and put into storage where they McConnell owned 31 panoramas that rotted, while still others were cut up and only included such giants as The Alamo, Valley fragments remain. Forge, Custer’s Last Stand, Paradise, Creation, When the new Gettysburg Visitor Center Evolution of the Dreadnoughts, and Second project began, Sue Boardman, co-author of this Battle of Manassas. McConnell exhibited his article, was given the task of historical paintings throughout the world from 1888 to consultant on the Design Team. One of her 1933. In a 1949 interview obtained by National numerous tasks involved researching the faux Park Historian Alfred Mongin, McConnell terrain foreground associated with the original stated that his first exhibit to include a Battle C H Battle of Gettysburg paintings. She began a of Gettysburg painting took place in Atlanta, I random study of H. H. Bennett photographs Georgia in 1895. From that point, he exhibited C from the Wisconsin Historical Society, a Battle of Gettysburg painting in eight cities A identified as being of the Chicago version. until 1933 when it was included in the Chicago G While viewing the photographs a startling World’s fair. The final exhibition was during O discovery was made. The details in scene the Texas Centennial Expo in 1936. From later content from the one set of photographs were events we can conclude the painting was placed different from the details in corresponding in a Chicago warehouse where it remained until views in the other set. This launched our 1964 when Joseph W. King, a renowned artist in-depth investigation. from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, acquired Stacks of historical letters, exhibit it from McConnell. King had it removed and souvenir programs, historical society placed in storage in an old tobacco warehouse materials, library materials, GNMP archive in Winston-Salem. At one time it was removed files, and many other sources were and rolled out onto the Wake Forest researched, but the most obvious evidence University’s football field for inspection and came from examining historical photographs photographs. Later, King donated an interest N E of Philippoteaux’s Chicago, Boston, in the painting to Wake Forest and upon his W Brooklyn, and Philadelphia paintings. Of the passing in 1996 bequeathed full ownership of ten available photographs of the painting held the painting to Wake Forest University’s Fine Y at Wake Forest, not one identically compared Arts Department. O to any of more than 40 views found of the During the years 1880 through the mid- R four Philippoteaux paintings. The evidence 1890’s, the period of “panoramania” in K leads is to conclude that the Wake Forest America, many studios were established to painting is not the original Chicago painting produce panoramas of many and varied or any other version by Philippoteaux, but a subjects. To display these massive works of very good version created by a different artist. art, rotundas were constructed in cities across (In addition to the above, a comparison of the United States and overseas. Two P photographs taken of the panorama displayed printed sources state that studios H during the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair with standardized the sizes of the paintings to I those of the Wake Forest cyclorama, does 365 feet in length and toured city to city. L verify they are the one and same painting.) The rotunda buildings may also have been A The first set of black & white same-scene standardized in size to accommodate these D E comparison photographs (Pg. XX) shows a paintings as they were moved from one L New York artillery battery racing to the front location to another. The structures have P from the Taneytown Road in the rear. The been described as portable iron and glass H second set of comparison photographs (left) is buildings with measurements ranging from I a hospital scene near the house representing 376 feet to 395 feet in circumference.
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