"In the 1880s, “The Battle of Atlanta” cyclorama painting was an immersive experience—the equivalent of virtual reality today. The painting is a full-color, three-dimensional illusion designed to transport the viewer onto the battlefield. Cycloramas were created as a form of entertainment—they were the IMAX of their time. The painting was a visual story about the 1864 Battle of Atlanta, but over time it has evolved into a significant artifact that has its own fascinating story. Now, the historical journey of the painting itself is part of the big picture," the Atlas Obscura says.

"With a circumference of 358 feet and a surface area of 15,030 square feet, the Atlanta Cyclorama is considered to be the largest oil painting in the world. It stands 49 feet tall and weighs more than 10,000 pounds. In the 1930s, the considerable effect of the painting was enhanced with the addition of three-dimensional characters and objects. Eagle-eyed visitors can spot the likeness of Clark Gable standing in for a fallen soldier.

"“The Battle of Atlanta” took five months to create. It was made at the American Panorama Company in Milwaukee by 17 German artists, and debuted in Minneapolis in 1886. Painted 22 years after the Battle of Atlanta, the painting originally depicted the battle as a heroic Union victory so it would appeal to Northern audiences. When the painting relocated to Atlanta in 1892, it was slightly modified and advertised as “the only Confederate victory ever painted” to appeal to its new Southern audiences that maintained Confederate sympathies. The 1864 Battle of Atlanta was not a Confederate victory, and most of the changes were reversed in the 1930s."

"At the centerpiece of this new multi-media experience is a 132-year-old hand-painted work of art that stands 49 feet tall, is longer than a football field, and weighs 10,000 pounds. This painting is one of only two cycloramas in the United States—the other being the Battle of Gettysburg cyclorama —making Atlanta home to one of America’s largest historic treasures," the official website says.

"In the 1880s, The Battle of Atlanta cyclorama painting was an immersive experience—the equivalent of virtual reality today. The painting is a full-color, three-dimensional illusion designed to transport the viewer onto the battlefield. Cycloramas were created as a form of entertainment—they were the IMAX of their time. The painting was a visual story about the 1864 Battle of Atlanta, but over time it has evolved into a significant artifact that has its own fascinating story. Now, the historical journey of the painting itself is part of the ‘big picture’.

"Created at the American Panorama Company in Milwaukee by 17 German artists, The Battle of Atlanta cyclorama took five months to create before it debuted in Minneapolis in 1886. Painted 22 years after the Battle of Atlanta, the painting originally depicted the battle from a Northern perspective as a heroic Union victory so that it would appeal to Northern audiences. When the painting relocated to Atlanta in 1892, it was slightly modified and advertised as “the only Confederate victory ever painted” to appeal to its new Southern audiences that maintained Confederate sympathies. The 1864 Battle of Atlanta was not a Confederate victory, and most of these changes from 1892 were reversed in the 1930s."

"The Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum was a Civil War museum located in Atlanta, Georgia. Its most noted attraction was the Atlanta Cyclorama, a cylindrical panoramic painting of the Battle of Atlanta. As of December 2021, the Cyclorama is located at the Atlanta History Center, while the building is now Zoo Atlanta's Savanna," the Wikipedia says.

"The painting was created as a traveling attraction for Northerners; it portrayed celebrated Union officers, while the portrayals of Confederate officers were not individualized. It was purchased and moved to Atlanta in 1891 by Paul Atkinson, who attempted to recast the Battle of Atlanta as a Confederate victory, repainting a group of Confederate prisoners of war so they became defeated Union soldiers.

"Paying visitors viewed the cylindrical painting from the inside, entering through an entrance in the floor. After being seated, the central cylinder rotates slowly, affording a view of the entire painting. The painting at one time was the largest oil painting in the world, and if unrolled would measure 49 feet (15 m) high by 358 feet (109 m) long, weighing 10,000 pounds. It held this record until 1894, when it was surpassed in size by The Racławice Panorama (15 × 114 meter, 49 ft × 374 ft) a cycloramic painting depicting the Battle of Racławice."

"Atlanta History Center is a history museum and research center located in the Buckhead district of Atlanta, Georgia. The Museum was founded in 1926 and currently consists of nine permanent, and several temporary, exhibitions. Atlanta History Center's campus is 33-acres and features historic gardens and houses located on the grounds, including Swan House, Smith Farm, and Wood Family Cabin. Atlanta History Center's Midtown Campus includes the Margaret Mitchell House & Museum. The History Center's research arm, Kenan Research Center, is open by appointment, and provides access to the archival collections. Atlanta History Center holds one of the largest collections of Civil War artifacts in the United States," the Wikipedia says.

Cyclorama: The Big Picture was opened in February 2019, and features the fully restored cyclorama painting, The Battle of Atlanta. At the centerpiece of this new multimedia experience is a 132-year-old hand-painted work of art that stands 49 feet tall. Two levels of exhibitions look at truths and myths of the Civil War; explore the untold stories of the painting; examine the role movies and visual entertainment have on shaping perspectives of the Civil War; and provides a look at the fleeting entertainment sensation of cycloramas.

"In 2014, the city of Atlanta announced its intentions to relocate the Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama and its artifacts to Atlanta History Center, including the antebellum Western & Atlantic locomotive, the Texas. The museum constructed an expansion to house the 360-degree panoramic painting, as well as the Texas locomotive, and other pieces in the Cyclorama collection."

"The Atlanta History Center is proud to announce the opening of Cyclorama: The Big Picture, featuring the fully restored “Battle of Atlanta” cyclorama painting," the Discover Atlanta says.

"Upon entering Cyclorama: The Big Picture, visitors are invited to watch an introductory video. Two levels of exhibitions include a look at truths and myths of the Civil War, untold stories of the painting, the role movies and visual entertainment have had on shaping perspectives of the Civil War and a look at the fleeting entertainment sensation of cycloramas.

"Guests enter the painting rotunda through a 7-foot-tall tunnel entry—passing underneath the diorama—before ascending an escalator to the 15-foot-tall stationary viewing platform. Here visitors get a full 360-degree view of the painting, enhanced by technology and a 12-minute theatrical, larger-than-life presentation projected onto the painting."

Reasons to see the Cyclorama

1. The painting, “The Battle of Atlanta,” is one of only two cycloramas in the United States, the other being the Battle of Gettysburg cyclorama, making Atlanta home to one of America’s largest historic treasures.
2. Be stunned by a new multimedia experience with a 132-year-old hand-painted work of art that stands 49 feet tall, is longer than a football field and weighs 10,000 pounds.
3. See “The Battle of Atlanta” cyclorama painting as it was originally intended to be viewed, an experience no one has seen or felt in nearly 100 years.  (Discover Atlanta)

"“Cyclorama” is the name given to the huge, late-nineteenth-century painting depicting the Civil War battle fought July 22, 1864, east of Atlanta. Housed at the Atlanta History Center and owned by the city, the Cyclorama is a national tourist attraction and cultural treasure. It is one of only two cycloramas in the United States, and at 42 feet tall and 358 feet in circumference, it is the largest painting in the country," the New Georgia Encyclopedia says.

"The Cyclorama was housed in Grant Park for more than a century. In 1921 a new building, designed by Atlanta architect John Francis Downing, took in the painting and, six years later, the locomotive Texas, famous in the Andrews Raid of 1862. In 1934-36, funded by the Works Progress Administration, 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 (twenty inches to fifty inches tall, to fit in perspective with the scale of the painting), give the painting more realism and extend it thirty feet toward the viewing platform.

"In 2014, the city announced the Cyclorama would be relocated to the Atlanta History Center in Buckhead, as part of a seventy-five-year lease agreement. The Grant Park location closed the following year, and the Battle of Atlanta was transported to the center’s campus in 2017, where it underwent a $35 million renovation. In addition to a new building to house the Cyclorama, conservators restored the painting’s skyline and recreated sections which had been removed to fit into the 1921 structure."

"Cycloramas were a big popular entertainment once upon a time, and the way it worked was this: Once you entered the big building you would typically proceed to a staircase that you walked up, to a platform located in the dead center of a painting, completely encircling you," the Smithsonian Magazine says.

"The canvas was slightly bowed away from the wall, and the horizon line of the painting’s action was at the viewer’s eye level. As much as a third of the top of the painting was sky painted increasingly dark to the top to create a sense of distance extending away.

"And the bottom of the canvas would often be packed up against a flooring of dirt with real bushes and maybe guns or campsites, all part of a ground-floor diorama that, in the limited lighting, caused the imagery in the painting to pop in the viewer’s mind as a kind of all-enveloping 3-D sensation."

"Imagine what life was like in the United States before movies and television – not to mention CGI and other forms of augmented reality. You had to go to the circus or squeeze into a courtroom gallery at a juicy murder trial to find an attraction with a “wow factor,” the CNN reports.

"In the late 19th century, along came paintings called cycloramas – massive, 360-degree renderings of landscapes, city skylines and war, including this one about the 1864 Battle of Atlanta. The painting was intended as a tribute to a Northern victory.

"To paint the Atlanta battle, the American Panorama Company in Milwaukee employed a small army of artists – OK, maybe 20 guys, most from Europe – to create a work “intended to please Northern audiences” (read Yankees)."

"Depicting the 1864 Battle of Atlanta—a major turning point in the Civil War—the 360-degree cyclorama is one of the world's largest oil paintings, standing 49 feet tall, stretching longer than a football field and weighing 10,000 pounds," the official press release says.

"Enhanced by multimedia storytelling technologies—including a 12-minute, larger-than-life presentation projected onto the painting—the exhibit is housed in the Lloyd and Mary Ann Whitaker Cyclorama Building at the Atlanta History Center, a newly erected, custom-built 25,000-square-foot space. The Battle of Atlanta cyclorama is one of only two cycloramas in the United States, the other being The Battle of Gettysburg cyclorama, making the Atlanta History Center home to one of America's largest historic treasures.

"Created at the American Panorama Company in Milwaukee by 17 German artists in 1866, 22 years after the Battle of Atlanta, the painting originally depicted the battle from a Northern perspective—as a heroic Union victory—to appeal to Northern audiences. When the painting relocated to Atlanta in 1892, it was slightly modified and advertised as "the only Confederate victory ever painted" to appeal to Southern audiences with Confederate sympathies. The Battle of Atlanta was not a Confederate victory, and those 1892 changes—like repainting fleeing Confederates in gray uniforms to depict fleeing Union soldiers in blue uniforms—were repainted yet again in the 1930s to accurately portray the original design."

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