Four Score and Seven Years Ago...

...Benito Mussolini announced he was taking dictatorial powers over Italy.  F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby.  The Scopes Trial took place, in which John Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution to high school children (gasp!).  The Chrysler Corporation was founded.  Mt. Rushmore was dedicated.  New York City became the largest city in the world, beating London.  Perhaps most importantly, my dear grandmother was born. 

But we're not talking about any of that today.  The title of this post is, of course, the opening lines of The Gettysburg Address and Abraham Lincoln was referring to the year 1776, but still it's kind of fun to look at the Wikipedia page for any given year and see what interesting events took place.  No, in that event, Lincoln was facing a civil war that had just escalated further with the Battle of Gettysburg. 

When I was back there in America for 3 weeks, Mom and I took a day trip to Gettysburg because I had not been in recent memory.  Since my mother last went, they had built a spiffy new visitor center and museum of the battle and the rest of the Civil War. 

The new visitor center, built in 2008, is pretty informative about both the battle and the war.  Beginning with a 20 minute long film (narrated by who other than Morgan Freeman), the museum portion peaks with the viewing of the cyclorama.  "What's a cyclorama, Steve?" You say in a perplexed, yet intrigued tone.  Well, I'm not sure of the Oxford English Dictionary definition of a cyclorama, but I believe it is a depiction of a scene or battle, often painted, using a 360 degree presentation.  In this case, it was the 1883 painting by Paul Philippoteaux depicting Pickett's Charge, the peak of the Battle of Gettysburg.  This was an impressive piece, not only in scope, but in composition.  The amount of detail is mind boggling.  Standing at 27 feet tall and 359 feet in circumference, this massive painting used literally tons of paint and completely encompasses the viewer.  Upon its debut in 1883 in Chicago, it was said that some veterans of the battle wept from its realism.  Here's a taste of it.
The visitor center is so impressive, one can actually catch ol' Honest Abe outside resting his legs on a bench. 

I feel like he's got something on his mind, while I look like I've been drinking. 

Here are a few more pictures from an interesting, education, and (most importantly) fun day with my mom, shortly before I had to leave to return to Korea. 

Mom and the same cannon as above

The same tree from above.  This tree has seen death

The same Major General Oliver Otis Howard from above.  Just kidding, he wasn't above.  But he is looking like he don' give one solid shit 'bout no Rebs.