Cyclorama of Birmingham History
The Cyclorama of Birmingham History is a large, nearly-completed freestanding painting on the surface of a plastered structure, 8-feet-tall, with two flat walls joined by semi-circular end pieces. It was commissioned in 1980 by Gary Smith of the Alabama Historical Foundation and painted by Eleanor Bridges over the next two years. It had been intended for display in 1981, but Bridges refused to work with a deadline, and it took some time to master the peculiarities of the substrate.
The work was originally conceived as a mural for the lobby of the Brown-Marx Building, but because the interior walls were clad in pink marble, Bridges proposed the idea of a constructed installation. It was dubbed a "cyclorama" despite not surrounding the viewer. Free to choose the theme of the piece herself, Bridges decided to portray the history of Birmingham through scores of vignettes and portraits, loosely arranged into larger compositions for different historical periods.
Warner Floyd helped her to assemble source materials for the composition. The background of the painting features Shades Mountain, Red Mountain and Sand Mountain, encircling the other elements. The motto "We dream of the future, we learn from the past, but we live in the present" was to have been included, but was not part of the completed work.
As Bridges' health declined, the work was left incomplete. She died in 1987. The cyclorama was displayed for a while in the lobby of the BellSouth Building, then placed in storage at the Lyric Theatre. With the opening of the Birmingham History Center at the Young & Vann Building in 2010, it was returned to public exhibition.
References
- "At 80, painter begins cyclorama" (January 1980) Birmingham Post-Herald
- Bell, Elma (1982) "'Almost as old as the city,' she plans to paint its history." Birmingham News
- Whiting, Marvin Yeomans (n. d.) "Script for Eleanor Bridges Mural". typescript. Birmingham History Center