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 has worked full time as a senior historian at History Associates in Rockville, Maryland. This month Garry becomes the Civil War Preservation Trust’s full time Director of History and Education. This view was taken at Devils Den sometime within Garry’s lifetime.

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 now 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 today’s post we continue showing Then and Now photographs on Howard Avenue, this time on Barlow’s Knoll.

This map, from the Gettysburg Park Commission Photos Then and Now CD, shows us the locations for the Then and Now photographs. We are not showing all of the photographs to you, only a sampling. In our first two posts we showed you photographs from McPherson’s Ridge. In our third post we showed you photographs on Howard Avenue and some of the monuments of the Eleventh Corps. In today’s post we show you two photographs taken on Howard Avenue’s Barlow’s Knoll.

View #7: Shell, stones and chain on Barlow Knoll. The monuments from left to right are: 153rd Pennsylvania Infantry; Flagpole in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Fowler of the 17th Connecticut; the guns of Lieutenant Bayard Wilkinson’s Battery G, 4th U.S.; The monument to the 25th/75th Ohio, and the monument to the 17th Connecticut Infantry Regiment. This view was taken facing northeast in 1899.

The statue to Brigadier General Francis Barlow statue can barely be seen in front of the tree. This modern view of the previous photograph was taken facing northeast in March, 2004.

View #8: Howard Avenue from Barlow Knoll. The photographer is standing on top of Barlow Knoll looking back to the previous camera position. The individual is standing by the monument to the 25th/75th Ohio Infantry Regiments. This view was taken facing southwest in 1898.

The statue to Brigadier General Francis C. Barlow at center of this view was erected in 1922. Barlow was severely wounded at Gettysburg. This modern view of the previous photograph was taken facing southwest in March, 2004.

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