Atlanta History Center — Attraction in Atlanta

When I first read and watched "Gone with the Wind" at 14, I fell in love with Ashley Wilkes--the sensitive, cultured, and honorable man Scarlett O'Hara was in love with. To me it was obvious why she preferred Ashley to Rhett Butler--Ashley was clearly a romantic figure who always did the honorable thing.

I revisited the book after I moved to Atlanta from New Jersey a few months ago, having purchased a copy with an erotic romance novel cover from the Margaret Mitchell House. Only now am I able to understand the appeal of Rhett Butler and the outdated sentimentality of Ashley Wilkes. These two men in Scarlett O'Hara's life represent two worlds at odds with each other: the Old South with the New South.

Both men recognized that the Confederacy was going to lose the war and that Southerners would have to brace themselves for a very different world as a result. But while Ashley chose to fight a losing battle valiantly, Rhett Butler looked at things practically and sought to profit from the war through blockade running and food speculation. Rhett mocked the traditions of the Old South Ashley belonged to and possessed the spirit necessary to survive after the war. More importantly, he fell in love with Scarlett O'Hara, and together they came to define the New South.

When I first got to Atlanta, I noticed that the Civil War is memorialized here in a way that you really don't see in the Northeast. Sure I learned about the Civil War in school and I'm sure we have some museums, but for me the war has always been history, here it has a constant presence.

The Cyclorama of the Battle of Atlanta is a reminder of this. Touted as the world's largest oil painting, the panorama circles the room at 358 feet and weighs over 10,000 pounds. The room resembles a planetarium and is meant to make visitors feel immersed in the battle. The painting, itself, is impressive as details such as the top of Stone Mountain in the distance and a soldier leaning over his dying brother to give him the drop of water he so desperately needs create a vivid image of what the battle and life was like. But the three-dimensional foreground is really what makes this panorama breathe.

There are figures of soldiers fighting and dying on red Georgia clay in the panorama, and some are placed in such a way that they appear to be half in the painting and half in the foreground. It's a pretty cool effect not being able to tell where the painting actually ends and the 3D foreground begins.

As we made our first rotation around the painting, I had my eye out for one soldier in particular. While he never did fight in the war, I had heard that one of the figures was made in the likeness of Rhett Butler aka Clark Gable, because Gable thought that he could make the Cyclorama better.

Laying in the grass with a bloody bullet wound in his abdomen is the dying Clark Gable, hamming it up for his audience with his trademark smile. Does the corpse of a smiling Mr. Gable actually make the Cyclorama better? Perhaps. But, frankly, who...

We love visiting the @atlantahistorycenter as a family, however on October 27th our visit turned into a misery when Amy Blaylock encountered us. The way she acted was just absurd, unethical and unprofessional!! As we entered the outdoor part of the museum it was about 10-15 minutes before closing. We really wanted to go inside the Swan House. Amy heard us speaking a foreign language (I lived all my life in the U.S. however, I like speaking in a foreign language to teach my children another language) She came up and said: “can I help you?!” I replied we really want to head over to the Swan House and I might take one or two photos on my phone, because we never actually been inside which is silly with us visiting the Swan House on multiple occasions. She stated you’re not allowed to do photoshoots on the property as there is a fee of $500!! I replied, I know (as I am aware of the photo policy) and I am not doing any shoots and all I had was my phone? (Not sure where she got that I am doing a shoot, when all we had was my purse with me, my phone and we were not even dressed up for a shoot!) She falsely stated that the policy changed and PERSONAL photos are NOT allowed on the phone even! I was a bit confused, however respecting her words and was not going to take any photos at all (during that time I actually had 0 photos from the entire museum, so I was perplexed why she started persecuting me and my family as there were a lot of people and others where taking photos?). She started stalking us which was very intimidating and alarming. We entered the Swan House and she proceeded to stalk us inside. As we entered the Swan House we were told there is about 10 minutes left to close and we are welcome to take photos, not to use flash and not allowed to video record anything. I confirmed with the worker to make sure I did not mishear anything, as Amy just made a scene stating the policy changed! As I wanted to take one photo by the stairs of my children, Amy appeared harassing me stating I am doing a photoshoot and this will be an $10,000 fee!!! I have NO IDEA WHERE SHE GOT THAT I AM DOING A SHOOT?! Such a person needs to be seen by a doctor as she is delusional and should not be working with people as she randomly chose my family to harass!! Her stalking us made me feel very uncomfortable and I was worried for our safety. No one should feel like that when coming to enjoy a day at the museum with their children! All we wanted was to enjoy a day with the family, but after encountering Amy we left with fear, terror and trauma!! She made us very anxious and my daughter 7 year old daughter was terrified that Amy stalking us! That is not...

I was treated awfully poorly. I left this place crying because I was kicked out for taking posed pictures, which I was not aware was prohibited. First I would like to add that I did not raise my voice at my moment, and I treated everyone with the respect I like to receive. I did not take “posed pictures” at an improper place, I was taking “posed pictures” at the Coca Cola room, right before the gardens, which by the way, was the ONLY place I took “posed pictures”. An employee approached me at first very politely, but did not give me a chance to explain that I did not know the photo policy. I told him I was not aware of the policy, but I would respect it, I was even willing to leave my camera (not a professional camera btw) and my phone in my car, but he insisted to kick me out because, as he claimed, he knew my intentions were to take posed pictures. My intention was not to take posed pictures, my intention was to visit this beautiful place, which I had only seen great things about it, a place I had been making plans to visit for two months, with very high expectations. I am a huge hunger games fan, and if you know you know. I did not stay there for even thirty minutes because I was asked to leave. I did not see half of the museum, I did not even get to walk around the garden. I spent $57 on tickets that could not be refunded, because like the employee (which I regret not getting his name) said, there was no need for photo policy warnings to be around the exhibitions, because there was already a warning at the ticket lounge and on the website. I am greatly disappointed to have been treated this way, after I spent weeks excited to visit this place, and planned my one day off of the week to come here. I drove for one hour to see the House and the garden, but unfortunately I did not see one leaf. He did say I was welcome to visit another day, however, I doubt my mother or I would feel comfortable to come back here again after the mistreatment we received and i do not wish to give my money to this place AGAIN after what i went through. Everyone else besides this one employee was kind and sweet, the volunteer was extremely helpful, and I feel bad for damaging their image, but hopefully no one else will have to be kicked out like I was if...