Update: On July 23, Mayor Kasim Reed announced that the Cyclorama of the Battle of Atlanta will be relocated from its current home in Grant Park to the Atlanta History Center, where it will be housed in a soon-to-be-built new facility. The move is expected to take two years. Learn more at the History Center’s website.
The Atlanta Cyclorama is one of the city’s most iconic landmarks. The painting depicting the Battle of Atlanta has been on display in the center of Grant Park for more than a century.
Most people in metro Atlanta are aware of some basic information about the Cyclorama–that it’s a large panorama painting, for example. But to commemorate the sesquicentennial anniversary of the Battle of Atlanta, we wanted to discover parts of the painting’s unique history that Atlantans may not already know.
To do that, we talked with Cyclorama tour guide and marketing assistant Yakingma Robinson. He helped us come up with eight lesser known facts about the famous work of art:
1. Atlanta’s Cyclorama isn’t the only one in existence.
There are 16 Cycloramas worldwide, Robinson said. While there are four existing Cyclorama paintings in the U.S., only two are functioning: the Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama and the Cyclorama of the Battle of Gettysburg.
2. Cycloramas were once a popular form of entertainment.
Cyclorama paintings served as the precursor to movies, Robinson told us. The paintings grew in popularity in Europe starting as in the late 1700s. It wasn’t until the 1800s that Cycloramas became a part of cultural life in the U.S.
3. The Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama isn’t the biggest in the U.S.—at least, not anymore.
Gettysburg’s Cyclorama is slightly larger than Atlanta’s. According to Robinson, the Atlanta Cyclorama was originally greater in size. But additions were recently made to the Gettysburg Cyclorama, as part of a restoration effort, making it the largest.
4. Even if it isn’t the biggest, the Cyclorama is an enormous painting.
According to Robinson, the painting weighs 9,334 pounds and covers an area of 16,000 square feet.
5. The 3-D diorama that visitors see at the foot of the painting wasn’t added until many years after the original painting had been finished.
While the painting was completed and put on display in the late 1800s, the diorama wasn’t added until 1936. The exhibit was built as part of a Works Progress Administration effort to create jobs during the Great Depression.
6. The original diorama wasn’t made out of plastic, as the one is today.
The artists made the first diorama out of natural resources, such as Georgia red clay. But since the materials were prone to mold and insects, the diorama eventually had to be replaced (though not before destroying about 20 percent of the original painting).
7. Many of the soldier statues standing in the diorama exhibit share the same face.
The artists who designed the soldiers crafted the figures’ faces in their own likeness. Consequently, about four to five faces are repeated over and over among the 128 soldiers.
8. That’s with the exception of one soldier, who was made to resemble Gone With The Wind actor Clark Gable.
As Robinson tells the story, Clark Gable and other members of the Gone With The Wind cast were invited to visit the Cyclorama. It was then that Gable joked to then-Atlanta mayor William Hartsfield that the exhibit would be much improved if a statue of him were added.
Find out more information about the event at the Cyclorama this evening, July 22, “Black Dispatches: Freedom Under Foot Featuring Germaine Ingram with Diane Monroe.”
9(MDAxODM0MDY4MDEyMTY4NDA3MzI3YjkzMw004))
