Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama

A 358-foot circular painting of the 22 July 1864 Battle of Atlanta — one of only two surviving large-scale cycloramas in the United States and now the centrepiece of the Atlanta History Center. The original was painted in 1886 by a team of German artists for the touring entertainment circuit and has lived in Atlanta since 1893.

A 2019 restoration and rehousing in a purpose-built gallery, with a slowly rotating viewing platform, is one of the most impressive museum installations in the country. Allow an hour for the cyclorama alone; combine with the Atlanta History Center.

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The Cyclorama painting includes a Confederate soldier whose face — added during a 1936 restoration — was deliberately modelled on Clark Gable. The Atlanta-set film Gone with the Wind had just been a sensation, and Gable's likeness was inserted as both a tribute and an in-joke; he remains there now, dying improbably handsome on the Eastern flank of the battle.

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