Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide, and Vice President of the Center for Civil War Photography,
Garry Adelman is the author of numerous Gettysburg books, articles, and other media. Along with Tom Danninger and Barry Martin, he co-created the CD, The Gettysburg Park Commission Photos: Then & Now. For eight years, Garry worked full time as a senior historian at History Associates in Rockville, Maryland. This month Garry became the Civil War Preservation Trust’s full time Director of History and Education. We wanted to show you that Garry sometimes wears a tie. This view was taken facing east at approximately 3:30 PM on Sunday, March 21, 2010.

Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Garry Adelman, along with colleagues Tom Danninger and Barry Martin, systematically located the camera positions of the 237 photographs included in the Annual Reports of the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission, 1893-1904. The trio arranged the photos into seventeen sections and present the images in a “then & now” format along with a history of the project and the Park Commission on their CD, The Gettysburg Park Commission Photos: Then & Now. We continue their series with a sampling from each of the seventeen sections.

The Gettysburg National Park Commission (GNPC) issued annual reports from its creation in 1893 until stewardship was transferred to the National Park Service in 1933. The reports, issued each November, covering that year through October, outlined the work of the GNPC for that year. Reports from 1893-1904 were bound into one volume with the photographs that accompanied each report (a practice started with the 1895 report) printed en masse after the text. Together, these images provide a comprehensive view of the battlefield and the Commission’s work available nowhere else. Comparing the images to the same sites today speaks to the important issues of preservation, commercialization, monumentation, and the growth of the GNMP. It’s also simply “cool” to look at then & now photos!

In our first post we looked at photgraphs taken on West McPherson’s Ridge.

In our second post we showed photographs taken on East McPherson’s Ridge.

In our third Then and Now post, we showed Howard Avenue and monuments for the Army of the Potomac’s Eleventh Corps.

In our fourth post we continued showing Then and Now photographs on Howard Avenue, this time on Barlow’s Knoll.

In our fifth post we show photographs taken for the Gettysburg National Park Commission along Oak Ridge/Seminary Ridge.

In today’s post we show photographs of the July 1st battlefield along Forney’s Ridge, and where the east arm of McPherson’s Ridge ends near Oak Ridge.

This map, from the Gettysburg Park Commission Photos Then and Now CD, shows us the locations for the Then and Now photographs. In today’s post we show photographs taken along Forney Ridge and McPherson’s Ridge.

View #1: View from the juction of Wadsworth and Reynolds’ Avenues showing style of tablet adopted for the avenues. This view was taken facing northeast in 1899.

This view looks north towards the Oak Ridge observation tower. In the far left distance is the site of the Eternal Light Peace Memorial which can be seen in the modern view. The east arm of McPherson’s Ridge ends in the fields in the background. The avenue tablet visible in the original view has been moved a short distance to the right and out of view in the modern. This modern view of the previous photograph was taken facing northeast in November, 2006.

View #6: Buford Avenue. This view was taken facing southwest in 1903.

Note the 6th New York Cavalry monument in the distance. This ridge is also known as Forney’s Ridge. This modern view of the previous photograph was taken facing southwest in October, 2002.

Purchase all the photographs from the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission Reports on this CD.