NEW BEDFORD – The longest painting in America will be on display this summer through two exhibitions by the New Bedford Whaling Museum, according to the museum Monday.
Last August, the museum received a $40,000 Exhibition Planning Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to fund the debut of “Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World,” a 1,275-foot-long painting created in 1848 by New Bedford natives Benjamin Russell and Caleb Purrington.
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The “Panorama” traveled the country in the 1800s and was considered a “moving panorama,” as it was accompanied by theatrics and narration. Now, the painting, which has not been shown since the 1870s, will be reintroduced through two separate exhibitions: “A Spectacle in Motion: The Original” and “A Spectacle in Motion: The Experience.”
“The Original” is a free exhibition featuring the painting at the Kilburn Mill in New Bedford and will run from July 14 to Oct. 8. “The Experience,” which will begin July 29 and run through 2021, is set up at the museum and will simulate the experience of audiences in the 1850s through a digital reproduction of the painting as a moving picture.
“Seeing the ‘Panorama’ in its entirety as a work of art, as well as experiencing it in motion, will be one of the most singular and spectacular American folk art milestones of this era,” said Christina Connett, Whaling Museum chief curator, in a statement. “It is an artwork of national historical importance and a keystone that defines our region’s role in maritime heritage.”
Haley Hunt is a PBN contributing writer.
