City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (404) 624-1071

Address: 800 Cherokee Ave. SE

Description: At the Atlanta Cyclorama the scene never changes: It is forever the blistering afternoon of July 22, 1864, and out by the Georgia Railroad line 2 miles east of Five Points, thousands of men are locked in a desperate battle that will lead to the fall of Atlanta and the Confederacy’s defeat. Housed in a massive, custom-built structure in Grant Park, the Cyclorama is an amazingly vivid re-creation of the Battle of Atlanta (sometimes and more accurately called the “Battle of East Atlanta”). Taller than a five-story building and 358 feet in circumference, the 9,334-pound oil painting on canvas is thought to be the world’s largest and has quite an interesting history. Huge, round panorama paintings, most often depicting battle scenes, were once a popular form of entertainment. In 1885 the Milwaukee-based American Panorama Studio brought a team of expert European panorama artists to Atlanta. From a 40-foot observation tower constructed near the present-day intersection of DeKalb and Moreland Avenues (in present-day Little Five Points), the artists surveyed the battlefield, which had changed little in the two decades since the war. During their months of research in Atlanta, the artists sought the war recollections of numerous veterans and citizens. The artists worked for 22 months in the studio to complete the painting, which was first exhibited in Minneapolis in 1887 and then brought to Atlanta in 1892 and exhibited in a drum-shaped wooden building on Edgewood Avenue. Patronage waned by the following year, and the painting was sold at a sheriff’s auction for $1,100. It was eventually donated to the City of Atlanta in 1898 and displayed in a wooden building in Grant Park. Fear of fire led to the construction of an artificial stone structure, which was designed in the neoclassical style by John Francis Downing and dedicated in 1921. A huge central column was both the viewing platform and the roof’s support. During the Depression, noted Atlanta historian and artist Wilbur Kurtz directed a restoration of the painting, and Work Projects Administration artists crafted the many foreground figures of soldiers, horses, and wagons that make the Cyclorama a three-dimensional experience. By 1979 the deteriorating Cyclorama was attracting more rats than tourists and badly needed extensive repairs. Noted conservator Gustav A. Berger’s restoration team undertook the task. But the artists needed access to the fragile painting’s back as well as its front, and it could not be removed from its specially designed building. Ingeniously, they removed a section of the structure’s wall and hung the painting from an overhead track; this allowed them to rotate various sections into the work area as needed. The project was not only tedious but also downright dangerous, because the canvas had been coated with lead, arsenic, and other toxins to repel insects. The diorama figures were restored under the direction of Joseph Hurt, a descendant of Troup Hurt, whose large brick house dominates the painting. The rather odd-looking modern space-frame system that spans the building’s roof was necessitated when the load-bearing central column was replaced with a better viewing area. The $11 million restoration was completed in 1982. Your visit to the Cyclorama begins with a 14-minute film narrated by James Earl Jones that features hundreds of costumed Civil War reenactors. The film recounts Confederate generals Johnston and Hood’s increasingly desperate efforts to protect Atlanta from Sherman’s advancing troops. The guide then directs everyone upstairs to the Cyclorama. There, surrounded by the battle scene, the audience sits on a tiered viewing platform that slowly revolves as various parts of the painting come alive with computerized narration and light and sound effects. For the most dramatic experience, skip the Cyclorama’s front rows and head up to the back section. These high seats afford a wider view of the entire battle scene and better capture the original panoramic effect. It’s fun to bring a pair of binoculars to spot small details in the painting and see where the artists attached the figures to the canvas. During the gala events surrounding the 1939 world premiere of Gone With the Wind in Atlanta, Mayor William B. Hartsfield took the movie’s stars to see the Cyclorama. Clark Gable is said to have remarked, “The only thing missing to make the Cyclorama perfect is Rhett Butler.” In short order, the face of one figure—a fallen Union soldier in the foreground—was changed to a likeness of the famous actor. Unlike most battlefield paintings, the Cyclorama does not represent a “frozen moment” in time, but instead displays actions during about a three-hour span of time during the battle. The level of detail is amazing; not only are major units, commanders, and actions portrayed exactly as they occurred, but also some very minor and obscure actions are rendered accurately. Take a careful look at the railway cut, next to the redbrick two-story building. In the treeline to the left, a Confederate unit can be seen assaulting over the low hilltop. This is the 1st Regiment of the Georgia State Line, an unusual (and very obscure) “state army” on loan to Confederate Lieutenant General John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee, as they were on their way to capturing a Union artillery battery at about 4 p.m. The Cyclorama’s museum has numerous informative displays about the Civil War and the painting itself. A half-hour video explains the tremendous restoration project. The museum also houses the locomotive Texas that was used in the Great Locomotive Chase. The gift shop has an extensive collection of Civil War books as well as souvenirs. It’s worth mentioning that the Cyclorama does not espouse the Confederate point of view: It was restored during the tenure of Atlanta’s first African-American mayor, Maynard Jackson, and its prevailing mood is accuracy of events, not pro-Confederate. The Atlanta Cyclorama is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Labor Day through May 31 and until 5:30 p.m. during the summer. It’s closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Presentations begin every 30 minutes throughout the day. Admission is $8 for ages 13 to 59, $7 for 60 and older, $6 for children 6 to 12, and free for children younger than 6.