Gettysburg Cyclorama

The painting is the work of French artist Paul Dominique Philippoteaux. It depicts Pickett's Charge, the failed infantry assault that was the climax of the Battle of Gettysburg. The painting is a cyclorama, a type of 360° cylindrical painting. The intended effect is to immerse the viewer in the scene being depicted, often with the addition of foreground models and life-sized replicas to enhance the illusion. Among the sites documented in the painting are Cemetery Ridge, the Angle, and the "High-water mark of the Confederacy". The version that hangs in Gettysburg, a recent (2005) restoration of the version created for Boston, is high and in circumference. Details of the painting File:Gettysburg Cyclorama.jpg|Pickett's Charge up Cemetery Ridge. File:'Confederate General Lewis Armistead at The Angle' -- Gettysburg (PA) Cyclorama 2012.jpg|Confederate General Lewis Armistead at The Angle He was shot three times, and died, probably of sepsis, two days later in a Union field hospital. File:A Wounded President Lincoln -- Gettysburg Cyclorama 2012.jpg|A wounded President Lincoln, reportedly according to Philippoteaux, representative of a wounded nation File:Caisson Exploding -- Gettysburg Cyclorama 2012.jpg|Caisson exploding File:Union Commandiing General George Meade & Staff Advancing Toward Cemetery Ridge July 3, 1863-- Gettysburg (PA) Cyclorama 2012.jpg|General George Meade and staff advancing toward Cemetery Ridge File:Union General Winfield Scott Hancock -- Gettysburg (PA) Cyclorama 2012.jpg|General Winfield Scott Hancock File:Union Infantry and Artillery Advancing Toward The Angle July 3, 1863 -- Gettysburg (PA) Cyclorama 2012.jpg|Union infantry and artillery advancing Toward The Angle File:Union Line on Cemetery Ridge July 3,1863 Near the Brian Barn -- Gettysburg (PA) Cyclorama 2012.jpg|Union Line on Cemetery Ridge File:Union Major (by brevet) Alonzo Cushing at The Angle July 3, 1863 -- Gettysburg (PA) Cyclorama 2012.jpg|Union Major Alonzo Cushing at The Angle == Development ==

investors to create the Gettysburg Cyclorama. He spent several weeks in April 1882 at the site of the Gettysburg Battlefield to sketch and photograph the scene, and extensively researched the battle and its events over several months. He erected a wooden platform along present-day Hancock Avenue and drew a circle around it, eighty feet in diameter, driving stakes into the ground to divide it into ten sections. Local photographer William H. Tipton took three photographs of each section, focusing in turn on the foreground, the land behind it, and the horizon. The photos, pasted together, formed the basis of the composition. Philippoteaux also interviewed several survivors of the battle, including Union generals Winfield S. Hancock, Abner Doubleday, Oliver O. Howard, and Alexander S. Webb, and based his work partly on their recollections. When completed for display, the full work included not just the painting, but numerous artifacts and sculptures, including stone walls, trees, and fences. The effect of the painting has been likened to the nineteenth century equivalent of an IMAX theater. Four major versions were made: the Chicago copy, the Boston copy, and two others. Of the latter copies, one was cut up and converted into tents for use on an Indian reservation, while the fate of the other is not known. == Chicago version ==

In 1881, Paul Philippoteaux was commissioned by Charles Willoughby to paint a cyclorama depicting Pickett's Charge for $50,000. Willoughby, Phillippoteaux, and other investors formed the National Panorama Company to display the artwork once it was completed. A location for a building to house the cyclorama was also selected. The work opened to the public in Chicago on October 22, 1883, to critical acclaim. The painting was displayed in Chicago for ten years; the exhibitors claimed that it was viewed by over two million people during that time. This version was probably not the copy displayed at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and a cyclorama displayed in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1893 was claimed to be the Chicago copy by its presenters. The next year, a copy claimed to be the original Chicago version was on display for a fair in Sioux City, Iowa; it was badly damaged by weather during this display. For a time, it was believed that a copy of the cyclorama discovered by North Carolinian Joe King in 1965 and later donated to Wake Forest University was the original Chicago copy. While work was being performed on the Boston version of the cyclorama in the 21st century, it was determined that this version was actually a later copy made under the direction of E. J. Austen. This version was sold in 2007, and in 2019 was sold to the North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center for a fraction of its appraised value. == Boston version ==

The Chicago exhibition was sufficiently successful to prompt businessman Charles L. Willoughby to commission a second version, which opened in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 22, 1884. From its opening until 1892, approximately 200,000 people viewed the painting. and was the site of popular public lectures on the battle. but it was likely displayed at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. but by 1896 it had been returned to Boston, where it was stored in a crate behind the exhibition hall, where it was subjected to damage from weather, vandals removing boards from the crate, and two fires. It was eventually purchased in its deteriorated state by Albert J. Hahne of Newark, New Jersey, in 1910. Hahne displayed sections of the cyclorama in his department store in Newark beginning in 1911, and sections were also shown in government buildings in New York City, Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. In the Baltimore exhibition, George E. Pickett's widow, "Sallie" Pickett, lectured on her husband's experiences and found herself very moved by the experience. ==Cyclorama building==

On September 3, 1912, ground was broken for a new cyclorama building on Baltimore Street in Gettysburg, on Cemetery Hill (on the site of the present day Holiday Inn), near the entrance to the Soldiers' National Cemetery. It opened to the public in 1913, in time for the 50th anniversary of the battle, once again displayed as a full circular painting, rather than in sections. The unheated, leaky brick building took a further toll on the condition of the painting. The Boston cyclorama was purchased by the National Park Service in 1942, and moved to a site on Ziegler's Grove near the new Visitor Center in 1961, after a second round of restoration. The $12-million restoration, by Olin Conservation, Inc., of Great Falls, Virginia, started with the 26 sections of the painting and recreated its original shape of 14 panels hung from a circular railing, slightly flared out at the bottom. In the process, some original pieces were found of the 12 circumferential feet that had been cut away. Fourteen vertical feet of sky was also restored. The building was demolished in early 2013. == See also ==

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