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Famous Kurtz Painting Donated to Southern Museum

KENNESAW, GA – The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, a Smithsonian Institution affiliate, recently acquired the famous Wilbur Kurtz painting, The General at Big Shanty.

The original 1962 painting was donated by Darletta Hirsh and will soon hang in the place that a replica has occupied since the Museum’s renovation in 2002.
“It’s an exceptional day in a museum when a replica is replaced with an original,” said Mike Bearrow, assistant curator at the Museum.

Hirsh donated the painting to the Museum because she feels that its home should be in the South. “It belongs here. It was such a pretty painting though…I miss it already,” she said.

When Hirsh and her husband moved to Georgia from the North, they took a strong interest in the area’s history. They acquired the painting through a personal meeting with Kurtz in his home after they watched him paint it.

Also from the North, Kurtz became a well-known antebellum artist and Southern historian and “humorously counted himself a transplanted Yankee,” according to his biography, Atlanta and the Old South Paintings and Drawings by Wilbur G. Kurtz.

“Kurtz liked to paint and sketch, and he coupled that with his historical expertise,” Bearrow said.

The historian moved to the South after interviewing William Fuller, the conductor who chased down his stolen locomotive, the General, during the Great Locomotive Chase, only 100 yards away from the present site of the Museum. During his visit with Fuller, he met and fell in love with Fuller’s daughter and married her in 1911.

Kurtz served as a historical consultant for the movies Gone With the Wind and Disney’s Great Locomotive Chase. He also was a consultant for aiding in the conversion of the Roosevelt estate in Warm Springs, GA to a historic landmark.

“Acquiring this piece is so much more than acquiring a painting. It is acquiring a piece of local history for the community to enjoy,” Bearrow said.

The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History houses three impressive permanent collections and is currently featuring a hands-on exhibition, Railroading in the Southeast.

The Southern Museum is 20 miles north of Atlanta, off I-75 at exit 273, Wade Green Road. For more information, visit www.southernmuseum.org or call (770) 427-2117.