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| (Picket and Library of Congress photos) |
I was a couple minutes
behind and hurried to join the rest of the audience. The large room was nearly
pitch-black and my hands felt like paws as they tried to find an empty seat
during the crawl up the carpeted steps. I could just make out a couple
silhouetted heads and finally clutched a seat near the top of the platform.
Whew! Just in time for the performance.
The lights came on.
The Civil War’s Battle of Atlanta began.
The crowd of 35 at the
Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum
gazed at the massive painting and took in the light-and-sound presentation as
the revolving platform took us around the massive mural twice. We passed the
Troup-Hurt House, where the Confederates briefly broke through the Federal line
on July 22, 1864. Passed Union Maj. Gen. John A. “Blackjack” Logan and his staff
riding furiously toward the front. Passed fake cannon and plaster figures in the
diorama, including one bearing a likeness of “Gone With the Wind” star Clark
Gable, who said during a visit to the Atlanta Cyclorama that the only thing
that could improve it was to add him. They did so -- but he ended up as the
face of a dead soldier.
Near the end of the dated
production, the recorded narration said of the Confederate loss at Atlanta: “So
many dreams died that day. So perished this cause.”
The lights back on, we
made our way to the edge of the giant platform, taking in details of the
slightly rippled, magnificent work of art.
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| Rendering of painting's future home (Atlanta History Center) |
I lingered a few
minutes with others to speak with our guide and I walked out to take in the
museum’s other exhibits, including the famed locomotive Texas.
It was a bittersweet
moment last Friday. After all, it was the last time I would sit on the platform at
Atlanta’s Grant Park, where the mural, painted by German artists in 1885-1886, has
been housed in the same building since 1921. I first visited in 1974 and have
made a few more stops since then.
The Atlanta Cyclorama’s
last day in its current location is Tuesday, June 30. It will close with little
fanfare.
After then, the cultural
and historic landmark prepares for the next phase of its storied life. The
painting is being relocated to the Atlanta History Center in the city’s Buckhead neighborhood, where an extensive restoration
will be completed.
What’s to become of the old property?
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| New entry area for Zoo Atlanta; Cyclorama building in background |
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| This zoo building near Cyclorama will be removed (Zoo Atlanta) |
Zoo Atlanta, right next door in Grant Park, will raze its old
administrative office near the entrance and place those and other functions in
the old Cyclorama building. The change also will allow for an expansion of the African
savanna exhibit and the addition of elephants (two currently are at the zoo).
“We are appreciative
of the mayor (Kasim Reed) bestowing us taking over a treasured building that
has a legacy in Atlanta,” Keisha Hines, the zoo’s senior director of
communications, told the Picket.
While there is no firm
opening date for the new Cyclorama building, AHC officials told the Picket last
week they expect it to be sometime in early to mid-2017.
AHC officials are
excited that the move will bring new interpretation opportunities for the
Cyclorama, which covers 15,030 square feet and is 42 feet tall and 358
feet in circumference. The $32.2 million project, funded largely through
donations and philanthropies, will include an endowment for long-term
maintenance and ensure more people will see the painting, which officials refer
to as an artifact.
Gordon Jones, senior
military historian and curator at the Atlanta History Center, said once the
restoration is done, people will see the Cyclorama as its artists envisioned – from
an open platform with a 3-D effect. And the view won’t be hemmed in as it
currently is at Grant Park (you only see a third or so of the painting at any
given time because of the large rotating platform). Another bonus is the return
of sections that were trimmed so that the mural could fit inside the current
building.
Jones understands why
some are nostalgic about the painting-in-the round's long tenure at Grant Park. (The painting
has been in Grant Park since the 1890s; it once was in a wooden building).
“It’s the end of an
era and the beginning of another. It makes you sad. It was an Atlanta icon for
so long,” Jones told the Picket. “So many have taken care of it -- (Artist-historian)
Wilbur Kurtz and the staff. It has been a labor of love for a lot of people.”
A 1979-1982 renovation
of the building and conservation led by Gustav Berger ensured the painting’s
survival. But the city’s funding limited what could be done in new forms of
interpretation and long-term care of the painting, and it was never able to pay for a proper means of attachment to the walls (it hangs now like a shower
curtain).
“This is the right
thing to do,” Jones says of the impending move. “We are a long-term care
facility.”
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| (Picket photo) |
Squabble over famous locomotive Texas
The addition of the
Cyclorama will add to the AHC’s permanent exhibits and collections relating to
the Civil War.
Asked what items from the
Grant Park location he is most excited about coming to the AHC, Jones mentioned
four artillery pieces that stood vigil at Fort Walker in what is now Grant Park
and a Robert Schade figure study (below) used as guide for the mural’s artists.
Another star of the show will be the
locomotive Texas.
On April 12, 1862, the
Texas took part in the famous Great Locomotive Chase, or Andrews Raid. Steaming
in reverse, the locomotive pursued the fleeing General that had been
commandeered by Union soldiers and civilians in disguise.
The Texas was back in
the headlines a couple months ago when word came that politicians and officials
in Cobb County and Kennesaw, northwest of Atlanta, indicated they would try to have the locomotive moved to the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive
History, which houses the General.
A state representative
told the Marietta Daily Journal in April that he believes the Texas may be
state property, rather than the city of Atlanta’s. “It just
makes all kinds of sense in the world to be housed somewhere in Cobb. This is
where the historical event actually took place, and I know that it would be
well cared for by that museum for sure,” Rep. Earl Ehrhart said. He told the newspaper he may introduce legislation to make it happen if
state officials don’t reach a decision.
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| Frieze on the Cyclorama exterior |
While the chase did
not take place in Atlanta, the Atlanta History Center says extensive research has
uncovered a document that goes in its favor.
“We are certain it
belongs to the city,” Jones said, describing a timeline in which a railroad
line disposed of rolling stock and a ladies’ association bestowed the Texas to
Atlanta after the state declined it.
Hillary Hardwick, vice
president of marketing communications at the AHC,” said “there is nothing to
discuss.” Plans are being made to have the Texas tell a wider story of the
founding and growth of Atlanta transportation and there is value in having the
trains in different locations to tell two stories, she said.
Officials will have to
bust out a wall at the Grant Park building in order to move the locomotive by
crane to a flat-bed truck for the journey north to Buckhead.
A panoramic journey way back in time
 |
| Mike Saulsberry |
Sitting on the 184-seat viewing platform at Grant
Park, southeast of downtown Atlanta, was like a trip back in time – to a
sweltering day in July 1864. The mural, all 9,334 pounds of it, is epic in
scale and focus. The focal point of the painting depicts fighting about
a mile and a half from Grant Park.
Among those I joined Friday
on the stage was Mike Saulsberry of Michigan.
He and his brother,
who lives in the Atlanta area, had visited the site in the late 1990s and he
was interested in seeing it again after delving deeper into history and
genealogy in recent years.
The brothers have ancestors,
James and Edward Gish, who served in the U.S. Colored Troops’ Company D, 108th
Regiment, and Henson Salsbury with Company F, 122nd Regiment.
“I liked the
fact that the presenter took time to answer questions,” Saulsberry said of
Friday’s presentation. “He gave us an opportunity to get up and walk around.”
At Gettysburg’s cyclorama, he said, the presentation was too quick. “You didn’t
have a chance to linger.”
Saulsberry said he
wants to learn more about African-American soldiers and their role in the
Atlanta Campaign.
While programs in
recent years at the current location have stressed diversity and the impact of
the war on various populations, the standing exhibits at Grant Park are dated
and lack such context. Two years ago, venue spokesman Yakingma Robinson told
the Picket that the staff had hoped for new, interactive exhibits. That now
will have to wait until the new building at the Atlanta History Center.
In 2011, Kevin Riley, editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote about his
visit to the center: “The Cyclorama looks tired -- from the seating, to the
diorama, to the painting itself."
With concerns about attendance, funding and the
condition of the painting and exhibits, Mayor Reed in 2011 assembled a task
force to study solutions. Last summer, Reed and the Atlanta History
Center announced the Cyclorama would get a new home.
Robinson and Jones
told the Picket that the painting, itself, is in decent shape. But art experts
won’t know for sure until the diorama is removed so that they can get a closer
look.
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| Zoo Atlanta's current elephants: Kelly and Tara. |
Zoo Atlanta excited about the addition
Although some
residents of Grant Park spoke in favor of keeping the Cyclorama, there never
appeared to be much formal interaction between the venue and the surrounding
neighborhood.
Zoo Atlanta has much
deeper ties to residents and associations.
And it’s much more of
a destination. While it saw a small attendance bump during the Civil War sesquicentennial,
the Cyclorama’s current numbers are between 60,000 and 70,000 annually. Zoo
Atlanta anticipates 1 million visitors this year, said Hines, the spokeswoman.
Beyond the expanded
savanna exhibit, current plans call for the zoo to use the building for offices
and a large special events facility that can be rented. A current Zoo Atlanta
administrative building will be torn down to a build “a more rich entry area
for the guests.” Hines cautioned plans are subject to change.
Already, the zoo sees weddings, parties and even sleepovers for children.
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| Conceptual image of expanded exhibit (Zoo Atlanta) |
Zoo officials can’t do much inside of their new site until the Atlanta
History Center has done some of the necessary restoration work and move the
mural.
Hines said it’s not yet clear what decorative or other themes might be
put in place in the old Cyclorama building.
“It will be exciting once we do know,” she
said of the project. “It will be great for Zoo Atlanta, residents and partners
in the neighborhood.”
COMING SOON: A closer look at the Atlanta History Center’s plans
for Cyclorama and related exhibits
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