Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide, and Vice President of the Center for Civil War Photography,
Garry Adelman, seen here near the 20th Maine Monument on the south slope of Little Round Top, along with Barry Martin and Tom Danninger created the CD, The Gettysburg Park Commission Photos: Then & Now. This view was taken facing north at approximately 2:45 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 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 our seventh post of Gettysburg Then and Now photographs, Garry, Barry, and Tom presented photographs taken in Evergreen Cemetery and the Soldiers National Cemetery.

In the eighth Gettysburg Then and Now post, Garry Adelman, Barry Martin, and Tom Danninger presented photographs on East Cemetery Hill.

In our ninth Gettysburg Then and Now post Garry Adelman, Barry Martin, and Tom Danninger presented photographs taken on Seminary Ridge near the Lutheran Theological Seminary.

In the tenth Gettysburg Then and Now post, Garry Adelman, Barry Martin, and Tom Danninger present photographs taken on Seminary Ridge near Shultz’s Woods and McMillan Woods.

In the eleventh Gettysburg Then and Now post, Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Garry Adelman, along with Barry Martin and Tom Danninger show us photographs on Big Round Top.

In today’s Gettysburg Then and Now post, Garry Adelman, Barry Martin and Tom Danninger show us where they matched up other old photos on Big Round Top.

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 on Big Round Top.

View #7: Big Round Top, after storm of September 30, 1896, This view was taken looking north in 1896.

Recorded near the summit with the 20th Maine monument in the left distance, this modern view of the previous photograph was taken facing north in March, 2004.

View #9: Big Round Top, after storm of September 30, 1896, looking northwest in 1896.

Finding the location of this view was very difficult. Many hours over several years were spent hiking up and down Big Round Top searching for this elusive scene. Finally Tom Danninger found the spot on the east side a few hundred yards northeast of (above) the Sphinx (on the Big Round op Loop Trail). The rocks in the foreground are much larger than they appear in the original photo, which along with the obscure location well off any pathway, made this a very satisfying find. This modern view of the previous photograph was taken facing northwest in November, 2005.

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