Behind-the-scenes tour of the Atlanta Cyclorama: Restoration gives painting new life; exhibits will tell a broader story than old days

Tour participants take in mural details before diorama is installed in foreground.

Escalator leads to viewing platform (Picket photos)

Gordon Jones believes the Atlanta Cyclorama – a giant, round painting created more than 130 years ago – has been kept in a box for far too long.

Once its restoration is complete, the mural of the July 1864 Battle of Atlanta, coupled with the Confederate locomotive Texas, will have something fresh and new to tell, says the senior military historian at the Atlanta History Center.

“The perception with both of these artifacts was you thought it was the greatest thing in the world … or you hated it because it was a bunch of white guys and dead horses.”

Jones, who is co-leader of the Cyclorama project team, said the opening of the 1886 painting and associated exhibits at the AHC in February 2019 is a chance for the institution to shed any vestige of being “your old grandfather’s museum.”

The exhibits, Jones says, can be a teaching tool about why the Civil War is still relevant, by telling the city’s story through a variety of wartime narratives – from Confederate and Union veterans, to white Atlanta residents and enslaved persons – and bringing that forward to civil rights and the discussion today about the conflict’s ramifications and symbolism. To that end, the AHC has consulted with more than a dozen experts.

A team of artists will finish their work on the painting soon, and the results are very impressive. The work has been cleaned, some areas repainted and colors are vibrant. The installation of the companion diorama in the foreground begins next month.

I recently took part in a behind-the-scenes tour of the cyclorama and locomotive Texas held each Saturday. (You will notice in my photographs a plastic covering over much of the mural. The sheets were temporarily placed to protect the battle scene from any blue paint dripping from the sky area). 

I spoke with Jones by phone after the tour to get his perspective on both the restoration effort and how this mammoth piece of Atlanta history will be portrayed.

1886 photographs a godsend

It’s difficult to overstate the value of photographs taken while the cyclorama – which documented a crucial moment in the Union victory -- was being completed in Milwaukee in summer 1886. They’ve been a guide for artists matching what the original artists wanted to convey to patrons.

Well-intentioned restoration efforts at the painting’s former longtime home at the city’s Grant Park sometimes came up short and altered certain scenes or figures. (The cyclorama was closed in summer 2015 and moved in early 2017 to the AHC.)

“The more you study the 1886 photographs the more you see that what was there originally was more artistically rendered than what came after,” said Jones.

The history center last year found a second set of photographs (taken in July 1886) in the collection of the Milwaukee County Historical Society. “You can see that they have made some corrections (in the painting) since the set of photographs taken 30 days earlier,” Jones said.

Photographs have aided restoration work

Detail of the Federal counterattack

The second set of photographs is the gold standard for work on the mural, said Jones. Copies of the photos, which focus on specific sections of the battle, are attached to cardboard mounts on the viewing platform at the AHC. Of course, artists can zoom in on details of images stored on computers.

The team has removed yellowing varnish, cleaned the Belgian linen (which has a backing) and repainted several areas or made repairs. They’re also adding an archival-grade varnish to the surface.

“Most of this is repair work because of the damage over the years, including water damage, some damage from being embedded in actual soil, dirt with the diorama. Some of the figures closest to the bottom of the painting … they were heavily repainted,” said Jones.

“When you go back to the 1886 photographs… you can see one arm completely (was since) put into a different position.”

That glorious pale blue sky

Two vertical sections of the canvas trimmed in 1921 so that it could fit in the Grant Park building have been repainted. And 7 feet of sky has been added to the top of the cylindrical painting, which weighs between four and five tons. The top of the sky had been lopped off little by little during its first three decades.

Why?

One has to recognize that cycloramas were a commercial venture – forerunners to movies -- and their owners moved them from town to town, as did the Atlanta Cyclorama. Sometimes, the canvas would be trimmed to fit into a particular building or there would be damage to the canvas.

At Grant Park, the Atlanta Cyclorama’s sky was much more contained than what it looks like now. “It had eliminated the sense of distance the sky was supposed to give you -- that disappearing line, the vanishing perspective,” Jones told the Picket.

In 1922, the sky was repainted to hide water damage and “new” clouds also covered stains. The sky appeared flat and was the wrong color, evident when this team of restorers worked their way down to the original paint.

“It was more of a swimming pool green,” said Jones. “What we have now is both described in contemporary accounts … and also, most importantly, the paint evidence. The paint on the canvas we were able to drill down and find, our conservators indicated is a pale blue color, almost a gray color.”

Those taking behind-the-scenes tours this year of the restoration get a real sense of the enormity of the sky, which almost dwarfs the combat scene below. But not to worry: A canopy will drop from the ceiling, providing a tent-like effect that will appear to even things out a bit. “When you go to the rail, you will not see where the sky ends,” Jones said.

By the way, the painting during restoration went from 42 to 49 feet tall and 359 to 371 feet in circumference.

Plastic covering protects mural during sky work

Let there be (proper) light!

While the AHC has high praise for its contract artists, technology also is playing a huge part in the restoration.

“The (LED) lighting makes it look like a whole new painting. It is much brighter and vibrant than it ever was,” said Jones.

He laughs about getting a text message while he was in a meeting. A contractor asking what month was the battle? (July). What time for the scene? (4:45 p.m.)

Bingo! The lighting was set to match a hot July afternoon in 1864.

Diorama: Getting a new lease on life

A cyclorama is a panorama image intended to place the viewer in the middle of a scene. Often, dioramas are built in the foreground to provide additional realism.

Atlanta’s cyclorama received its current diorama during the mid-1930s. Some 128 plaster figures of soldiers, faux artillery and other pieces and natural elements, such as dirt and shrubs, were added.

Of course, there was a bit of a negative effect on the painting over time. Soil and other items discolored or stained the Belgian linen. AHC officials vow the restored cyclorama and diorama will be true to their intent, erasing criticism of how they looked a decade ago.

Weights give canvas hyperbolic shape

Kevin Riley, editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote in 2011 about his visit to Grant Park: “The Cyclorama looks tired -- from the seating, to the diorama to the painting itself,” Riley wrote. “Last weekend, I watched as a local restoration group did some annual maintenance work on the diorama, and it’s clear that the place has seen better days.”

Jones said the diorama 2.0 will be a bit larger than the Grant Park version, but people will see it from a different vantage point, a stage rather than a revolving platform. The stage is about 38 feet away from the painting and patrons will be able to use their smart phones to scan certain scenes and figures in the painting to access more information.

Patrons will enter the large room via a tunnel that is built under the diorama. They also will have a moment to look at the back of the painting to see how it is rigged and weighted to ensure its hyperbolic shape.

Installation of the diorama begins in September.

Artists have used these to attain exacting detail

So how will the painting be interpreted?

AHC officials told CNN last year that the work previously was interpreted in many ways, from extolling the emergence of the "New South" after the Civil War to the "Lost Cause" narrative, which proclaimed the conflict was more about states' rights than slavery.

The AHC entered the public debate over Confederate monuments after the church shooting in Charleston, S.C., and says interpretation of them must include why they were erected, often for white supremacy reasons.

Confederates near the Troup Hurt House

While the cyclorama shows Union troops blunting a Confederate assault at the Troup Hurt House, generations of Southerners looked at the painting as a symbol of their right to secede. For Northerners, the victory at Atlanta helped ensure the nation endured and slavery would end.

Not surprisingly, the politics and passion related to the Civil War remain.

“This is one of the best stories anyone has in the country,” Jones said of the battle. “This can be a teaching tool that helps everybody understand what was going on in the Civil War, the memory of that event, the narratives and (how that is) relevant to what is going on today.”

Locomotive Texas display will open in November

Stephen Davis, author of "What the Yankees Did to Us: Sherman's Bombardment and Wrecking of Atlanta," told the Picket that the painting “is important as a lesson to all visitors that Atlanta has not destroyed or dismantled this depiction of Civil War history.”

He cited the removal of statues of Confederate leaders in Memphis, New Orleans and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he attended.

“But Atlanta has essentially put this great historic painting onstage for the world to visit and has decided not to enshroud or to hide it -- at least not yet,” Davis said.

The first stop for the new wing of the AHC will be the Texas, the locomotive that successfully chased down the General during the Great Locomotive Chase in 1862. While, the Texas was painted in bright colors during its long stay at Grant Park, it was recently restored to its 1886 appearance, during the rapid postwar growth of the city.

The adjacent upper gallery will have an animated map of wartime Georgia. Visitors will use interactive kiosks to zoom in on Atlanta’s fortifications and streets. One exhibit will include a sword and revolver belonging to Union artillery Capt. Francis DeGress, whose battery held a critical part of the line on July 22, 1864, and is depicted prominently in the mural.

DeGress items currently on exhibit

Topics include the freedom for enslaved persons, the Lost Cause, the Union perspective, Reconstruction and reconciliation.

For the painting itself, a new sound-and-light production will be played once an hour. It will be an “enhancement, not an experience,” said Jones. The show will talk about how the painting and interpretation have changed over time.

People exiting the rotunda downstairs will learn more about the cyclorama’s history, advertising, its form of entertainment and other examples of linking art and the past.

Before movies and TV and color photography, the Cyclorama was the cat’s meow, said Jones.

The historian said he hopes visitors will leave the museum with new perspectives about the Civil War and its impact today.

“They can begin to think for themselves,” he said.

The last AHC painting/Texas tour is at 1 p.m. this Saturday. Cost is $50 for members, $75 for nonmembers. Details here