We have an informal tradition in Iola -- born out of the expertise of a number of Krause Publications editors initially -- of holding a "Whatzit Day" now and then. A bunch of editors sit at tables, and people can bring in their oddball items to get a rough appraisal of those items' possible value. It's always fun to participate, because you have an opportunity to see a variety of treasures and oddments -- and Sunday was a case in point.

For example, I'd never seen a Hopalong Cassidy lamp with comic art as part of the design. It was in perfect shape, as far as I could tell:

But the prize of the day was clearly this panorama (held by militaria expert Fred Borgmann):



Our guess is that it's worth in the thousands -- but how many thousands? Who knows? As Fred said, this is an item that requires selling via a specialty auction house. He'd never seen this item before: an engraving from a painting of Gettysburg by James Walker, complete with a guide (see the pull-out frame on the right) to the people shown in the portrayal. Thanks to the Internet (and my super-phone, since we didn't have WiFi in the building), we tracked down a few details.

The painting on which it was based was commissioned by Col. John B. Bachelder and designed as a panorama of the third day of battle. Completed in 1870, it was exhibited in Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington (along with the schematic). Our guess? That the engraving was offered for sale to the public at the time of those exhibitions.