Cyclorama

February 10, 2005 5:08 AM

The Gettysburg Cyclorama was my first exposure to the type of art known as cyclorama, when I saw it as a child. Imagine my pleasure to discover that in addition to several other cycloramas that still exist worldwide, there is a society to preserve them.
posted by plinth (10 comments total)

Thanks for the links - while I've been to the Atlanta Cyclorama a few times (and walked past it many, many times over the years - it's right next to Zoo Atlanta, which my family has visited as a group almost annually for the past fifteen or more years) it never occurred to me to look for other examples. Thanks!
posted by bwilliams at 5:26 AM on February 10, 2005

i take my 2yr old to the laysan island cyclorama in iowa city just about every week. it's tucked up on the fourth floor and is kind of relic-y but that suits it fine given the history of the form.
posted by jmccw at 5:55 AM on February 10, 2005

Incidentially, I'm pretty sure the unaccounted-for Gettysburg cyclorama mentioned at the end of the National Park service link sat at the corner of Beech and Irwin Streets, Allegheny City, PA (now Beech Ave and Brighton Rd, Northside, Pittsburgh, PA), as of 1890. There's no mention of the building's use as a cyclorama in a 1901 map, but it was definitely gone by 1925, the building being put into service as an ice plant.

See here for source material; no links are provided directly to the maps because, for some reason, the substring "&image=" within a query string is freaking one or both of Safari or Metafilter out.
posted by Vetinari at 6:10 AM on February 10, 2005

The only one I've seen is in the Met in NYC - it's of Versaille.
posted by smackfu at 6:12 AM on February 10, 2005

The Boston Center For The Arts now occupies the Cyclorama which was erected in 1884 for the express purpose of housing "The Battle of Gettysburg" circular panorama.

"The huge circular painting - 400 feet in circumference and 50 feet high...was executed by French artist Paul Philippoteaux, a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux Arts.... The exhibition opened in Boston on December 22, 1884.

...The Gettysburg painting was lost for twenty years and then was found by chance on a vacant lot in Roxbury rolled up in a wooden box and only slightly damaged. Further exhibitions in this country and Europe followed and it was finally acquired by the National Park Service in 1924 and found a permanent home at Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania."
posted by ericb at 6:21 AM on February 10, 2005

Interesting - upon further reading - it appears there were a number of "Battle of Gettysburg" panoramas - which "toured" the country in the late 19th. century.
posted by ericb at 6:27 AM on February 10, 2005

[this is good]
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:13 AM on February 10, 2005

Wonderful stuff, and much exploring to do. I'd love to visit these. Thanks, plinth!
posted by carter at 8:16 AM on February 10, 2005

Great post, thanks! I saw the Gettysburg cyclorama some years ago. Of course I was a teenager and thought my dad was dragging us somewhere totally boring, but it was great. ;)
posted by livii at 8:44 AM on February 10, 2005

Love it.
posted by breezeway at 1:18 PM on February 11, 2005