This weekend I made my first fieldtrip to Atlanta. I decided to go see the Cyclorama in Grant Park. Apparently this was a bit of a fad after the Civil War -- large oil paintings put together in the shape of a cylinder. In the case of the Atlanta Cyclorama, it is a painting depicting the Battle of Atlanta from the Civil War. The painting is 42 ft. tall and 358 ft. in circumference. It used to be larger, but due to being transported around and such over 100 and some years, it's been worn down a bit. The painting is suspended with stadium seating setup on a platform inside the cylinder. The stadium seating is concentric to the painting and 30 ft. less in radius. The 30 ft. in between is filled with a diorama to give the painting more of a 3-Dimensional appearance. The stadium seating slowly rotates while different images from the painting are highlighted by a spotlight and explained by a narration. It was really pretty interesting. The building also contains the restored locomotive "Texas" which was involved in the "Great Locomotive Chase" of the Civil War. (I hadn't heard of it before, so don't feel bad if you haven't either.)
The Cyclorama Building from the front
The next picture shows the rear part of the building where the painting is housed. You can see the metal structure that supports that part of the building (the painting weighs 9000 pounds!). If you take a close look at that part of the building and the metal structure, they are covered with lightning rods (they didn't show up in any of my pictures). I guess it makes sense for a building housing 9000 lbs. of canvas and oil paint valued at $20 million. If it was mine I certainly wouldn't want it going up in smoke due to a lightning strike!
The part of the building that houses the painting
If you're interested in reading more about the Cyclorama try these two websites:
1 comment:
A fascinating bit of history! I had never heard of them before. It would be a fun place to visit.
Love,
Mom
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