Devoted to the American Civil War, the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center opens in front of you. Inside you’ll find the 1884 Gettysburg Cyclorama, a museum gallery and theater, and the tour center used by licensed Battlefield Guides and by buses that go to the Gettysburg Battlefield and Eisenhower National Historic Site. The museum displays artifacts — cannon, firearms, and uniforms — and includes an exhibit gallery, a theater, a computer resource room, a bookstore with gifts, and a restaurant.
This complex has a layered history. One of the first Gettysburg museums showed the J Albertus Danner collection in 1881, and in 1894 the Cyclorama was first displayed in a tent at The Angle. Groundbreaking for a building on Cemetery Hill occurred in 1912. The Round Top Museum (1888–1964) and the Gettysburg National Museum (1921–2008) were acquired by the National Park Service after the 1963 battle anniversary. During the post‑WWII increase of tourism, Mission 66 improvements for the NPS 50th anniversary included the modernist Cyclorama Building at Gettysburg, designed by Richard Neutra; it opened in 1962 as the first NPS visitor center for the battlefield.
Richard Neutra's Cyclorama Building opened in 1962, and the battlefield sweeps away beyond it.