William Halley,editor, THE LAKE VINDICATOR
I am writing the first book from the American point of view about 19th century rotunda panoramas.These were the biggest paintings in the world, 50 x 400=20,000 square feet, housed in their own rotundas which were 16-sided polygons. Chicago in 1893 had 6 panorama companies and 6 panorama rotundas.HowardH.Gross (1853-1920),attorney, owned the Reed & Gross/Pierpont & Gross panorama company located in Englewood, which in the 1880s was a Chicago suburb and in the 1890s a Chicago neighborhood.From September 1885 thru September 1888 Gross produced every 90 days a unit of the BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG and JERUSALEM ON THE DAY OF THE CRUCIFIXION for cities from coast to coast and beyond.At those days Englewood was a booming middle class community;today it is the most blighted of Chicago neighborhoods . I want to write a nice story about 19th century Englewood.William Halley might have chronicled this panorama company in Englewood. I have much to share.