Leadership & Advisory Board

The Center for Civil War Photography

Leadership

Bob Zeller

President, Lake Norman, NC

Bob Zeller, co-founder and president of The Center for Civil War Photography, is one of the country’s leading authorities on the imagery of the Civil War. He is the author of several ground-breaking books in the field, including The Blue and Gray in Black and White: A History of Civil War Photography (Praeger, 2005), the first narrative history about the war’s photographers, what they did and why they did it. Zeller pioneered the modern presentation of stereoscopic Civil War photography with The Civil War in Depth (Chronicle Books, 1997), the first 3-D photo history of​ the war, and The Civil War in Depth Volume II (Chronicle Books, 2000).

A writer, journalist and historian, Zeller spent 25 years in newspaper journalism, specializing in investigative reporter and later working as a motorsports beat writer covering NASCAR. He has authored or co-authored 20 books, including his latest, Fighting the Second Civil War: A History of Battlefield Preservation and the Emergence of the Civil War Trust (The Civil War Trust, 2017).

A native of Washington, D.C., Zeller grew up in Hyattsville, Md. He has been presenting 3-D slide show lectures of original Civil War photographs since 1997. Images from his Civil War photography collection were featured at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery exhibitions on Mathew Brady in 1997-98 and Alexander Gardner in 2016, as well as in his own one-man exhibition at the Southeast Museum of Photography in 1995. Bob lives on Lake Norman, N.C. with his wife, Ann. They have two grown children, Sara and Jesse.

Garry Adelman

Vice President, Brunswick, MD

For Chicago-area native Garry Adelman, the Civil War meant practically nothing until he picked up one of William Frassanito’s books in 1983. From that day forward, he was obsessed with the Civil War and its photographic coverage. When he first visited Gettysburg and then Antietam four years later, his life’s work became clear. Since those first visits, Garry became a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg in 1995 and has given tours at more than 60 Civil War sites. He earned his B.A. in business from Michigan State University (1990) and his M.A. in history at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (2002).

He is the author, co-author or editor of 20 books and 30 articles. He has appeared on the BBC, American Heroes Channel, C-Span and the History Channel, on which he serves as historical consultant and talking head in the Emmy Award-winning production, “Gettysburg” (2011). He is director of history and education at the Civil War Trust and lives outside of Washington, D.C. with his wife, Jennifer, and his sons Asher and Griffen.

Chuck Morrongiello

Co-founder/Development Director, Tampa, FL

The Civil War has been one of Chuck Morrongiello’s main interests since childhood. He has been a Civil War enthusiast since his dad took him to Gettysburg as a youngster and today is an avid collector of Civil War memorabilia and art. Chuck is an accomplished guitarist and musician and was a original member of Strange Brew, a successful band on Long Island, where he grew up. Chuck is a graduate of Five Towns College on Long Island, and is a well-established and successful financial representative for The Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, with 31 plus years’ of experience where he has won all kinds of industry awards. He currently plays lead guitar with founder Of the Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship the iconic lead singer Marty Balin. Chuck lives with his wife Karolina Morrongiello in Tampa, Florida.

John J. Richter

Director of Imaging, Hanover, PA

Richter has been taking stereo photos and collecting images for the past 30 years. John has a vast collection of 19th-century images, with his main focus being Gettysburg. Views from his collection have appeared in Tim Smith’s  John Burns: The Hero of Gettysburg, Garry Adelman’s The Myth of Little Round Top, Bob Zeller’s The Civil War In Depth and The Blue and Gray in Black and White, among others. John has written for Stereo World and co-edited the CCWP’s 99 Historic Images of… series of booklets. John is a long-time stereo photographer and member of the National Stereoscopic Association and the International Stereoscopic Union. Much of John’s work includes digital restoration of original images. He has produced 3-D displays for the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, Gettysburg Visitor Center, Pamplin Historical Park, Maryland Historical Society, Atlanta History Center, Canton Museum of Art, Gettysburg Heritage Center, Smithsonian and Mount Vernon. John has also coauthored the book Lincoln In 3-D, published by Chronicle Books. John resides in Hanover, Pa., with his wife, Jody. They have two grown children, Edward and Julia.

Julia Richter

Executive Director, Hanover, Pa.

Julia Richter

Julia Richter, our new executive director, is 23 and a recent graduate of York College, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in graphic design and a minored in photography. She works as a junior designer and photographer at Graphcom in Gettysburg, the printing company that prints Battlefield Photographer. Richter has also volunteered at several seminars. She  resides in Hanover, Pa.

Craig Heberton IV

Social Media, Ridgefield, CT

Craig Heberton IV is the author of the ebook Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg: A Review of Alexander Gardner’s Stereoscopic Photos (Watermark: 2012) and writes & publishes posts for the blog “Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg” (WordPress). His piece “E.T. Whitney: Brady’s Equal in Front of the Camera” appeared in the April 2016 issue of Battlefield Photographer. He provided research assistance for Amy Gary’s wonderful book In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown (Flatiron Books: 2016) — which was the culmination of his involvement with the publication of several Margaret Wise Brown stories rescued by Ms. Gary from a barn in Vermont in 1991. Since early 2016, he has managed the Facebook page for the Center for Civil War Photography. He was graduated from Duke University and the Washington University School of Law, is married to a super-accomplished owner of two businesses, and adores above all else his daughter.

John Banks

Secretary/Treasurer, Nashville, TN

Banks is married and has two daughters. He graduated from Mount Lebanon (Pa.) High School and West Virginia University (B.A. in journalism). In his first job out of college, he was sports editor of the Evening Journal in Martinsburg, W.Va., 15 miles from the Antietam battlefield in Sharpsburg, Md. A longtime editor in sports at The Dallas Morning News and ESPN in Connecticut, he is the author of two Civil War books: Connecticut Yankees at Antietam and Hidden History of Connecticut Union Soldiers (The History Press). He also manages the popular John Banks’ Civil War Blog. 

Larry Kasperek

Photographer, Cleveland, OH

From western New York, Larry attended the University of Missouri, graduating with a degree in photojournalism. That led to a 25-year career in newspapers, working in New Jersey, Mississippi, and Iowa as a photographer and then in Michigan, southern California and Alabama as a picture editor and director of photography. In 2000, he moved to back north to partner in a commercial photography business, then gradually started moving into art photography.

About the time of the Civil War Centennial, Larry discovered two things he loved: photography and the Civil War. Family vacations often included major battle sites in the East. The CCWP is a perfect fit for those interests, and at close friend Bob Zeller’s encouragement, he became more involved.

Larry lives near Cleveland with his wife and their dog, Abe Lincoln. The Kaspereks have two adult children.

The Center for Civl War Photography

Advisory Board

Frassanito is an author and historian and the nation’s most prominent scholar on Civil War photography. A student of the Civil War and Gettysburg since age nine, Frassanito is a graduate of Gettysburg College and a veteran of the Vietnam conflict, where he received a Bronze Star for his work as an intelligence analyst. His first book, Gettysburg, A Journey in Time (Scribners, 1975) is a landmark of Civil War photographic scholarship. He was the first historian to extensively use photographs of the war as historic documents. He has since published three additional major books on Civil War photography as well as a number of other publications. He lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Watching Rob Gibson work is like looking over the shoulder of Mathew Brady,” says Mary Panzer, former Curator of Photographs at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. It is no exaggeration. Gibson is more than just a wet-plate photographer committed to authenticity. He’s an artist with a passion for image making on glass plates. While an engineer with General Motors in his native Rochester, N.Y., Rob became fascinated with wet-plate photography as a Civil War reenactor. He procured 19th century photographic guides and literally taught himself the craft of wet-plate photography. Eventually, Rob’s side business as a period photographer at Civil War reenactments became so successful, he resigned his job, moved to Gettysburg and in 1999 opened his own wet-plate studio, Gibson’s Photographic Gallery. Rob has appeared on CSPAN, PBS, the History Channel and the A&E network. He has lectured at the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of the Confederacy and the White House Press Photographers Association. Rob was the exclusive wet-plate photographer for the movie Gods and Generals. His book, The Gods and Generals Photographic Companion (2003, Thomas Publications), features more than 75 wet-plate photographs of characters and scenes in the movie. He also appeared in Bob Dylan’s accompanying music video Cross Over the Green Mountain. Rob’s photographs also appeared in the movies Cold Mountain and An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, as well as numerous publications.

Smith is a licensed battlefield guide at Gettysburg and the author of three books concerning the Battle of Gettysburg, including John Burns: The Hero of Gettysburg. A reference historian at the Adams County Historical Society, he is known for his meticulous research.

Reeves is an artist specializing in the Civil War and other military subjects. His artwork can be seen on display at the United States War College, General Staff College, Cavalry School in Fort Riley, Kansas, and numerous other military collections. His work has also been used on the Discovery Channel, A & E, and many books and magazines. He is also a collector of military items and resides in Tampa, Florida.

Director and founder of Motts Military Museum 1988 to present, in Groveport, Ohio and was a professional photographer for 40 years, owning and operating of Motts Photographic Center. He was the official photographer for the Bicentennial “The American Freedom Train” and produced a photographic re-creation of the Battle of Gettysburg, “Gettysburg: A Portrait in Red, Gray, and Blue.” Special events Photographer and article published on Civil War Photographer Mathew Brady in “Blue and Bray Civil War Magazine”. Has appeared on TV’s Arts and Entertainment Channel for The Civil War Journal, on the “Mathew Brady” episode. Past President, American Society of Photographers, and the Professional Photographers of America and has earned Photographic Craftsman, and Master Degree, from the PPA as well as Honorary Master of Photography Degree from China and Mexico. Presently is the historian for Professional Photographers of America. Presented programs to 1000 plus organizations throughout the world and is photographic a Judge and Jury Chairman with the PPA. Has served on the Board of Directors, Ohio Institute of Photography, Dayton, Ohio. Have appeared on PBS and Network radio and TV shows talking about History and Photography and is an Honorary Lifetime Membership in the Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides Gettysburg, Pa.

Palm owns and operates the Museum of Civil War Images at an 1802 vintage home at 229 Baltimore Street in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A native of Pennsylvania, Palm has been collecting Civil War photographs since childhood, when he bought an ambrotype portrait of a Civil War soldier for $1.75. Palm’s museum has on display original photographs of about 3,000 identified Civil War soldiers, most of them from Pennsylvania. The featured exhibit of the museum is over 300 original images of the Pennsylvania Bucktails and artifacts. Open weekends or by appointment.
E-mail: cwi@penn.com | Phone: 724-664-5150 or 717-337-1867.

Boardman is an ER Nurse and Licensed Battlefield Guide and an historical consultant for the design team currently building the Gettysburg National Park’s new Visitor Center and Museum complex. Her collection of Gettysburg Battlefield images has been used to help guide the Park’s extensive ongoing restoration program.

Robin Stanford of Houston, Texas is one of the nation’s premier collectors of Civil War and Texas stereo views. In 2015, the Library of Congress ac quired more than 500 of her rarest and most desirable Civil War views and has made them freely available to all. You can see all of them here.

Jason Wickersty has spent countless hours over the past seven years staring at the Library of Congress’ collection of high-resolution Civil War images. His discoveries have been published in Military Collector and Historian, the journal of the Company of Military Historians, Hallowed Ground, the official magazine of the Civil War Preservation Trust, as well as Battlefield Photographer, the newsletter of the Center for Civil War Photography. He has also studied the “dark art” of wet plate photography under many of the notable practitioners in the field, including John Coffer, Will Dunniway, Claude LeVet, Ray Morgenweck, and Rob Gibson.

A Civil War reenactor since 1997, Jason also studies 18th-19th century military drill, tailoring, and fife and drum music. Hailing from the “Crossroads of the Revolution,” he also takes particular interest in the Revolutionary War and the Battle of Monmouth. He is also die-hard lover of traditional Irish music, and practices Irish flute and the Irish language when he can.

Currently a National Park Ranger at the National Parks of New York Harbor Education Center, Jason lives in Bayonne, N.J. with his wife Annie and their cat, Sheila.

Membership Plans

Support The Center For Civil War Photography By Becoming A Member