Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide, and Vice President of the Center for Civil War Photography,
Garry Adelman on the left, Barry Martin in the center, and Tom Danninger on the right created the CD, The Gettysburg Park Commission Photos: Then & Now. The three are lining up a Gettysburg National Military Park image on Sedgwick Avenue. This image was taken looking southeast circa 2005.

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 our sixth Then and Now post we showed photographs of the July 1st battlefield along Forney’s Ridge, and where the east arm of McPherson’s Ridge ends near Oak Ridge.

In today’s post of Gettysburg Then and Now photographs, Garry, Barry, and Tom present photographs taken in Evergreen Cemetery and the Soldiers National Cemetery.

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 in Evergreen Cemetery and in the Soldiers National Cemetery.

View #1: Section of Taft’s Fifth New York, Evergreen Cemetery. This view was taken facing northwest in 1899.

This scene has changed little over the last century other than more foliage and the absence of the shells next to the cannon. Theft of these projectiles resulted in the removal of practically all of them from the field. This modern view of the previous photograph was taken facing northwest in April, 2003.

View #2: Dilger’s Battery I, First Ohio, National Cemetery. This view was taken facing southeast in 1899.

The Evergreen Cemetery Gatehouse is visible through the trees at center. This modern view of the previous photograph was taken facing southeast in November 2003.

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