Raynors HCA 2015-05
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/21/2015
Broadside, “GRAND PANORAMA OF THE WAR!” 6” x 17-1/2,” ornate border, nail up holes, VG. An apparently unrecorded broadside advertising the display of a massive panorama of Civil War battles. Penciled information on this broadside indicates that the panorama could be viewed at Brimfield, Massachusetts on Wednesday, October 26, 1864, and William Gay is identified as the "delineator" of the presentation. Nearly all the major battles of the war would be depicted, including Fort Sumter, Bull Run, Wilson's Creek, the bombardment of Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Ball's Bluff, the engagement of the Monitor and the Merrimac, Pea Ridge in Arkansas, Antietam, Vicksburg, Fort Donelson, and much more. There are also portraits of Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, a group of rebel prisoners at Fort Donelson, a panoramic view of New Orleans, and a potentially gruesome view of "the effect of one cannon ball." Following the panorama of war scenes would be a comic interlude, and the evening concludes with a "series of National Chromotypes" and a "new and beautiful design of the Stars and Stripes revolving around Washington, the Father of our Country." We can find no copies of this broadside listed in OCLC, nor are we able to find any other information about William Gay or his panorama. It is well known that during the Civil War crowds of civilians would gather at the edges of battles to watch as they unfolded. This broadside is rare evidence of the public's continued fascination with images of battles during the war itself, exhibited in an exciting form to a mass viewership.
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