Access Atlanta > The Newcomer > Archives > 2008 > September > 15
Monday, September 15, 2008
Cyclorama: site to see, or a site for sore eyes?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Keith Lauer, director of the Atlanta Cyclorama, stands in front of the panoramic painting of the Battle of Atlanta.
Our Cyclorama isn’t the largest, the oldest or even the most visited of the two massive paintings that remain on display in the United States. But it’s ours, and according to a Sunday AJC story by Bo Emerson, it might need an overhaul.
First, for newcomers: the Cyclorama is a giant painting — 42 feet tall and 358 feet long — of the 1864 Battle of Atlanta. It hangs in a building in Grant Park. It was painted from 1885-86 as a campaign promotional device for unsuccessful vice presidential candidate Gen. John Logan, and was first displayed in Detroit in 1887. It underwent a $15 million restoration in 1979-1981. About 100,000 people visit it every year.
Atlanta Cyclorama
It’s an attraction that one visitor quoted in the AJC story said was in his “native Atlanta tour,” the kind that seems to knock the locals over with a wave of nostalgia whenever you mention it. (No shame there: I have a soft spot for Greenfield Village.) If you’d grown up here, you would’ve visited it as a student — but maybe not since.
A $15 million, five-year restoration project of the Cyclorama showing the Battle of Gettysburg apparently showed what a Cyclorama can be. That one gets about 1.3 million visitors a year.
Gettysburg Cyclorama
For a side-by-side comparison, check out this story by Emerson from July: “Atlanta Cyclorama gets some competition from Gettysburg.”
Here’s what I want to know: Long-timers, is the Cyclorama a must-see? Newcomers, is it something you want to see? And what would you think if it were restored, or even moved to a new location?
