Skip to content

The Conservation, Re-interpretation & Re-exibiting of the 1886 Cyclorama

Greetings! I hope this Newsletter finds all of you well. I must say our September virtual meeting with Jack Davis was great fun. We had a large audience, and they were treated to a fabulous talk about the letters of General Gabriel Wharton and his wife, Nanny Radford.

On November 16 at 7:00 PM, the Roundtable will be treated to another remarkable talk. Our speaker, Gordon Jones, is the Senior Military Historian and Curator at the Atlanta History Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where he has worked since 1996. Gordon curated the 9,200 square foot permanent exhibition Turning Point: The American Civil War, featuring the incredible DuBose and Dickey collections.

From 2014 through 2019, Gordon oversaw the five-year project to research, conserve, re-interpret and re-exhibit the famed 1886 Cyclorama painting of the July 22, 1864 Battle of Atlanta, and that will be the subject of his talk. For those who have never observed the Cyclorama, it is a circular painting that stands 49 feet tall and is longer than a football field and weighs 10,000 pounds! It is one of only two cyclorama paintings in the United States, the other being of the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg that is housed in the new Visitor’s Center at the Gettysburg National Military Park. For his talk, Gordon will have illustrations of the Cyclorama and of the effort to re-exhibit it at the Atlanta History Center.

Gordon is a graduate in History from Furman University; he received his MA in Public History from the University of South Carolina, and his PhD in History from the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory University.

We welcome Gordon to the Kentucky Civil War Roundtable for our second virtual meeting!

BECOME A MEMBER TODAY!

The Kentucky Civil War Round Table is the largest in the nation in terms of membership. Membership is open to all. Membership fees entitle you to attend five dinner meetings per year in January, March, May, September, and November (each member must pay for his/her own dinner) and the KY Civil War Roundtable newsletters, as well as access to special events.