About that Gettysburg Cyclorama, the 376-foot painting of Pickett’s Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg. When Brief Bits said last week that it was displayed in Wake Forest in 1965, it was probably really displayed at that other Wake Forest, the university. This time it was the editor who was in a situation similar to the anxious grandparents who turn up here in June, expecting to watch a grandchild graduate from Wake Forest University. No wonder the museum is doing brisk sales with the new T-shirt: “Wake Forest: Where the college used to be.”
It was in Winston-Salem in the new Groves Stadium there that the huge painting was probaly displayed. Ed Morris, the director of the Wake Forest Historical Museum, said this last week: “The large 365 degree painting was owned for years by Wake Forest University and was given to them after they moved from here. Groves Stadium was dedicated in W-S in 1960. Do you possibly think this is another case of mistaken location and that it was actually displayed at the University and not here? That would seem far more likely since it takes multiple tractor trailers to haul it.”
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Speaking of museums, you really owe it to yourself to go to North Main and see the Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit, Hometown Teams, during its short visit here. It will leave the end of May. It is a major coup for a very new and relatively small museum to be the only Triangle location chosen for this exhibit. Morris and Assistant Director Jennifer Smart have added a large amount of information and exhibits about sports in Wake Forest, both from the college and the high schools.
