A new look for Gettysburg’s cyclorama painting

You may think you’ve seen the cyclorama at the National Military Park in the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, visitor center, but if you haven’t seen it lately, you haven’t really seen it at all. [>>Click here to open a photo gallery in a new window.<<]

The monster circular painting, which re-creates the pivotal Civil War battle of July 3, 1863, was in the old visitor center, where it had accumulated decades’ worth of dirt and grime. And it wasn’t hanging as it was intended when French artist Paul Philippoteaux and 20 artists created it in 1883-84, using photographs of the battlefield, maps and interviews with soldiers who fought there.

But now the 359-by-27-foot painting is displayed as its creator intended and will open to the public on Friday, Sept. 26. Click here to see more photographs of the artwork and diorama.

With the help of a little optical illusion (including dioramas and a sky that “disappears”), visitors who view the painting in its new home should feel as though they are in the middle of Pickett’s Charge.

That was when Confederate troops, under the command of Gen. George Pickett (and Gen. James Longstreet), attacked Union troops on Cemetery Ridge in what was one of the fiercest, bloodiest battles of the war.

The Union turned back the graycoats, turning the tide of the war as well. But the cost was high: casualties totaled about 43,000, nearly a third of all the troops there.

You can see why the battle veterans who went to see this wept at the sight, said Dru Neil, director of communications for the Gettysburg Foundation, the private organization that works with the Park Service. It had to be very, very powerful.

Especially if placed within the context of the technology of those days. Cycloramas were the movies of their time. Special circular buildings were constructed to accommodate the artworks, but with the emergence of the motion picture, the craze ended.

The Gettysburg painting was the second of four that Philippoteaux created. This one originally hung in Boston, but when the novelty wore off, it was relegated to storage crates and eventually was cut up and hung in a department store.

The park acquired it in the 1940s and opened it in the Richard Neutra-designed visitor center in 1962. The new Gettysburg visitor center opened in April, but the cyclorama project, which cost about $15 million, including repairs to the painting, completes the center.

The old center was to have been torn down, but a suit has been filed against the National Park Service to stop the demolition. The park service wants the old cyclorama site returned to its place as part of the battleground.

Admission to the cyclorama and its movie, “A New Birth of Freedom” (narrated by Morgan Freeman, with voices by Sam Waterston and Marcia Gay Harden), costs $12 for adults, $7 for ages 6 to 12 and is free for children 5 and younger. For information: (717) 334-1124 or (877) 874-2478 (tickets and reservations) and www.gettysburgfoundation.org or www.nps.gov/gett.

– Catharine Hamm / Los Angeles Times Travel editor

[Photo: Bill Dowling]

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This entry was posted on Sunday, September 21, 2008 at 7:04 am by Catharine Hamm and is filed under East Coast, National Parks, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.