This past week I presented on the monumental canvas, The Battle of Gettysburg: Repulse of
Longstreet’s Assault, July 3, 1863, at the Boston Athenaeum. As part of a
sponsored program for the current exhibition, Subscription Campaigns:
Contributions in Support of Community, this talk explored the history of the panoramic painting and its
subsequent souvenir industry. (You can read about the talk here.)
Six years in
the making, James Walker’s twenty-foot long by seven and a half feet wide The Battle of Gettysburg debuted in
Boston on March 14, 1870. No less than five major Boston newspapers lauded the
work’s sweep and substance, praising its “remarkable minuteness and
comprehensiveness and . . . fidelity.” Indeed, several of the generals depicted
in the work (Longstreet, Meade, Hancock, Webb, Hall, and others) vouched for
its accuracy—and its pathos. After its first appearance, The Battle of Gettysburg embarked on a cross-country tour with
owner, the historian John Badger Bachelder, to “delight and instruct” American
audiences. The popularity of the picture and the narrative of the battle of
Gettysburg generated a souvenir market including guide books, descriptive keys,
and small-scale print reproductions. This cottage industry around Walker’s
panoramic painting enabled Bachelder to shape Americans’ popular—and persistent—perceptions
of the battle.
Image: James Walker, The
Battle of Gettysburg: Repulse of Longstreet’s Assault, July 3, 1863, The
Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina