American Historical Ephemera and Photography

4 1/2 x 6 1/2 in. paper flag with canton featuring a Gettysburg Cyclorama graphic. Overprint states, in part: "Cyclorama, Battle of Gettysburg, Cor. Charles St. Baltimore, open 9 A.M…" Attached to original 8 in. staff. Framed, 12 x 10 in. (toning, occasional spotting, short tears and some chipping to edges).

A rare advertising piece. 

The Battle of Gettysburg Cyclorama, a circular oil-on-canvas painting depicting the heroic charge of the Confederate infantry led by General George Pickett on 3 July 1863, was painted by French artist Paul Philippoteaux and opened to the public in Chicago in 1883. It received such public acclaim, Philippoteaux painted a second version that opened in Boston a year later. At the conclusion of the Boston exhibition, the cyclorama was displayed in New York, Washington DC, and Baltimore before being transported to Gettysburg where it has been on display at the Gettysburg National Military Park since 1913. The Cyclorama is 359 feet long, 27 feet high and weighs 3 tons.

Provenance: This flag is from the collection of Leroy T. Vernon, White House Press Corps newspaperman and former campaign manager for President William Howard Taft in 1908. Vernon purchased the bulk of his Civil War collection from the Jennie Wade Museum in Gettysburg in the early 1900s. This flag has been exhibited at a museum.