Highlights Archives
Gettysburg Remembered — Bennett Images of Phillippoteaux's Cyclorama
To commemorate the 141st anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, the Wisconsin Historical Society web site has mounted a unique set of photographs of the Gettysburg Cyclorama depicting Pickett’s Charge.
During the nineteenth century, giant 360 degree panoramas became popular forms of public entertainment. One of the most spectacular portrayed Pickett’s Charge on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg. H. H. Bennett, Wisconsin’s premier landscape photographer, captured the full scope of this cyclorama with his camera. These photographs are now available for viewing and purchase on our website.
On July 1, 1863 the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia met at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. When the battle ended on July 3, over 51,000 soldiers were dead, wounded, missing or captured, and the Confederacy had lost one of its most critical battles. Pickett’s Charge, one of the last engagements of the battle, quickly took on legendary status representing both the heroic side of human nature and the folly of war.
During the first half of the nineteenth century, cycloramas became increasingly popular forms of entertainment in Europe and then America. By the 1830s artists began to incorporate three dimensional objects in the foreground to increase the realism of the display. French artist Paul Dominique Philippoteaux built an international reputation by painting major European battles and was commissioned to create the first Gettysburg Cyclorama. Beginning work in April 1882, the painting opened to the public in Chicago on October 22, 1883.
When Henry Hamilton Bennett returned from the Civil War, he began a forty year career as a photographer. Bennett became one of the premier landscape photographers of the nineteenth century, renowned for his views of the rock formations along the Wisconsin River. In addition, he sought out popular subjects from which he could create three-dimensional stereo views for sale at his studio. This search took him to the Chicago Cyclorama in the late 1880s. The photographic record of that visit is now available on our website.
Phillippoteaux created four Gettysburg Cycloramas. The Chicago painting is now owned by Wake Forest College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The second Gettysburg painting was originally done for display in Boston and is now on view at the Gettysburg National Military Park. It is now undergoing major preservation and restoration a section at a time, but remains open to the public. The other two cycloramas have been destroyed.
:: Posted June 24, 2004
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