'Atlanta in 50 Objects': 6 Civil War-related items make the cut in new exhibit

Plaster figure on exhibit  (Picket photo)

Before there was a famous beverage (Coca-Cola), a Nobel Prize winner (the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.) and a popular Christmas ride (the Pink Pig), there was an Atlanta down on its luck. Some 150 years ago, Atlanta was a small town knocked to its knees by the Civil War and hoping for better days.

Out of the Civil War’s ashes – as depicted by the city’s seal of a winged phoenix – rose a spirit of recovery and can-do that eventually turned the rough-edged town into a major American city. Along the way, certain people, events, businesses and cultural items gained iconic status.

The Atlanta History Center will tell the evolving city’s story in a six-month exhibit, “Atlanta in 50 Objects.” But it wasn’t curators who set out to determine the defining items to display – about 300 suggestions came from area residents.

While much of the “diverse” exhibition opening Jan. 16 resulted from ideas of a more contemporary nature – the growing Atlanta movie industry, immigration and hip-hop music – six objects have ties to the Civil War. They are:

First page of Sherman's order (Courtesy Atlanta History Center)

-- Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s Special Field Order #67, which expelled starving residents after the besieged city fell in early September 1864. Sherman and his soldiers had a great deal to do with the ashes. Before leaving Atlanta on the March to the Sea, his engineers destroyed everything of military value. Sherman forced remaining families to abandon their homes.

-- A 1930s plaster soldier figurine from the diorama in the foreground of the Cyclorama painting, which depicts the July 22, 1864, Battle of Atlanta.

-- A 1936 first edition of Margaret Mitchell’s classic “Gone With the Wind.”

-- A bronze model for "Atlanta from the Ashes," a 1967 sculpture by James Siegler. It was given to the city by Rich's department store. It now resides in downtown's Woodruff Park.

-- A 1936 Georgia Railroad timetable panel will make mention of the strategic importance of railroads to the city during the Civil War.

(Picket photo)

-- A small boat made from shells from the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition, which showed off economic resurgence following the conflict’s devastation and sealed Atlanta’s position as capital of the “New South.”

Part of the exhibit’s intro covers the concept:

“How do you tell the story of Atlanta in 50 objects? We decided the best experts were Atlantans themselves – residents who cheer the Braves and rue I-285 rush-hour traffic, who understand how Civil War losses and Civil Rights victories together helped forge the city’s unique identity.”

Howard Pousner, manager of media relations at the Atlanta History Center, said the public made thematic suggestions (such as “include the Civil War because …”) and then curators had to determine, sometimes in concert with partner institutions and companies, what was the best object to convey those themes.

While there are references to the Civil War and Atlanta’s formative years, others cover the waterfront, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Rev. King and Coca-Cola, to Hank Aaron’s 600^th home run bat and a Chick-fil-A billboard cow. Several people nominated something from the 1996 Summer Games.

“Atlanta in 50 Objects” is a precursor to the April premiere of a permanent exhibition on the history of Atlanta.

(Picket photo)

Moviegoers, of course, are familiar with the screen version of Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind,” which tells the story of a resilient woman who uses her wits and guile to deal with the Civil War’s impact on her Georgia family.

The Cyclorama diorama figure was among those fashioned between 1934 and 1936 as part of a Works Progress Administration project. “Artists Weis Snell, Joseph Llorens, and Wilbur Kurtz fashioned plaster figures for a diorama as foreground for the painting. Set on a flooring of red clay, the shrubbery, cannon, track, and 128 soldiers gave the painting more realism for visitors,” the AHC says.

The painting is being moved from Grant Park to the Atlanta History Center campus in Buckhead. The public will be able to see much of its restoration in a new building.

Library of Congress

The Cotton States and International Exposition (above), held on the grounds of present-day Piedmont Park, drew nearly 1 million attendees and helped the city draw investment. The event also is remembered for the “Atlanta Compromise.” Educator and orator Booker T. Washington did not explicitly challenge segregation. Rather, he advised African-Americans to seek economic security before equality.

As for Sherman, the South’s favorite bogeyman? He issued his order on Sept. 8, 1864. More than 1,600 individuals, who had suffered privation and bombardment, were registered and ordered to leave later that month. The order also authorized the construction of new Federal defensive works around Atlanta.

Major Gen. Sherman

Mayor James Calhoun pleaded for Sherman to withdraw the evacuation order. “You know the woe, the horror, and the suffering cannot be described by words.”

The general’s reply included this line: “War is cruelty and you cannot refine it. …”

“Atlanta in 50 Objects” will be on display from January 16 to July 10 at the Atlanta History Center, 130 West Paces Ferry Road NW. The exhibition is included in a general admission ticket. 

Dressed in black: Mourning tour explains life and death during Victorian era

Scarlett O’Hara wanted little to do with that mourning business.

Her husband, Charles, had died of pneumonia during the Civil War.

Scarlett, who felt she is too young to be a widow, wore a mourning dress to a charity ball in Atlanta.

In that famous scene from “Gone With the Wind,” the dashing Rhett Butler won the right to dance with her in front a horrified crowd.

You may remember the looks of disgust, particularly among the ladies present, as they dance, Scarlett decked in black.

"For a widow to appear in public at a social gathering - everytime I think of it, I feel faint," bemoaned Aunt Pittypat.

Scarlett had violated the traditions of mourning in the Victorian era. Women of means would mourn for two and a half years and dancing with a bachelor was out of the question.

This story is among many described through the end of August at Stately Oaks Plantation, a Greek Revival home in Jonesboro, Ga., scene of a bloody 1864 battle.

The house, built in 1839, was moved nearly 40 years ago from a field a few miles away where Union soldiers camped prior to the battle.

Clayton County, south of Atlanta, has many ties to Margaret Mitchell, author of “GWTW.” Her great-grandfather, Philip Fitzgerald, had a home nearby. Stately Oaks claims Mitchell may have gotten some of her inspiration for her characters by driving by historic Jonesboro.

I stopped by Stately Oaks this week for the “mourning tour.” I was thoroughly impressed by a collection of artifacts and the wonderful telling of history and traditions by docents Kay Dreyer and Jan Turner.

“You did everything you could to honor the dead,” Dreyer said.

Of course, soldiers killed in battle usually were buried where they fell, but families and friends made every effort to recover their body later.

Mourning displays fill the two-story house, which has an original cookhouse, a tenant cabin and one-room school. The loss of a child is represented in the parlor.

Stately Oaks this year has a display on African-American mourning traditions in the Victorian age.

I was fascinated by the origin of some traditions:

-- A wake was a period in which people would sit next to the coffin and ensure the person wasn’t really “asleep.”
-- Bodies were usually displayed in the parlor or a bedroom. Once “funeral parlors,” or businesses came into being, a home’s parlor became known as a “living room.”
-- Feet of a deceased loved one were pointed to the door so its journey to heaven would not be impeded.
-- Mirrors in the house were covered. “You should not be vain during mourning,” Dreyer said. Spirits also wouldn’t want to see themselves and be denied access to heaven.
-- In the South, slaves would sing a mournful song en route to a grave, while sharing a joyful one coming back to celebrate “Going Home.” Sometimes, a plantation owner wouldn’t allow a funeral until late at night so as to get a full day of work from them.
-- A small bottle (below) would catch tears. They would either be saved or poured over a grave.

The discussion may appear morbid, but I found the docents’ explanation of mourning rituals fascinating.

“These people knew death could happen in a moment,” said Dreyer, who has volunteered at Stately Oaks for three decades and is in her third year of leading the mourning tours.

Families took care of the dead themselves. Grieving lasted three days, and an invitation to a viewing or funeral was hand-delivered. Because this was before the time of widespread embalming, people brought flowers to help mask the smell.

People in Victorian era also were sentimental and superstitious.

One third of children died before they were 5 and a photo of their remains might be the only image a family would possess.

Unscrupulous photographers sometimes took advantage of this. Through “spirit photography” they would obtain an image of the deceased while he or she was alive and then superimpose it over a survivor, as if it was a guardian spirit.

The top killers of married women were childbirth and a house fire.

And mourning for the sexes was unequal. A husband mourned three months and often would wed a sister or cousin of his wife.

A wife, however, had an extended period of mourning, with different stages of colors. During the Civil War, especially, a woman with modest means, might have to dye a dress black.

Stately Oaks has dozens of artifacts showing mourning as a business, with parasols, fans, buttons, portraits and much more. I won’t share all of what they have here. But a visit this month will give you a fuller appreciation of life and death during the era.

The mourning tour takes about two hours to go through the house and the other buildings. Tours are conducted on the hour from 10 am til 4 pm (last tour at 3 pm) Monday - Saturday. Admission: Adults, $12; seniors, $9 (55 yrs); and children, $6. Stately Oaks also offers AAA and military discounts.

• Click here for more information on Stately Oaks.