Maritime history fans take note: The longest painting in North America, and probably the world, the 1848 “Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage Round the World,” at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, is being restored, Yahoo reports (https://tinyurl.com/whalepan).

The quarter-mile-long, 8-foot-high painted panorama originally toured the country by train and wagon. Mounted on a system of cranks and wheels, the panorama gradually unrolled across the stage while a narrator told the rapt audience stories about being at sea, whaling and visiting far-flung ports around the world.

Over the years the panorama deteriorated, and the whaling museum has spent $400,000 to preserve and digitize it, hopefully so it can go on display again one day. Conservator Kate Tarleton is pictured with the panorama in an AP photo by Steven Senne.

“It’s a national treasure,” project manager D. Jordan Berson said, “that’s been out of the spotlight for too long.”