Episode 266: Military Images Magazine’s Ron Coddington Shares the Stories Behind Civil War Photos

Posted on Updated on by Maureen Taylor

Ron Coddington, editor and publisher of Military Images magazine, joins The Photo Detective podcast to share his journey from teenage Civil War photo collector to leading a respected history publication. He discusses the legacy of Civil War portraiture, the vast archive of surviving images, and the magazine’s mission to reconnect forgotten faces with their stories. Coddington highlights his collaboration with historian Kurt Luther, advances in photo sleuthing, and efforts to digitize and exhibit collections nationwide. His passion for preserving and showcasing historical images is evident through high-quality print editions and traveling exhibits celebrating diverse Civil War contributors.

  • The magazine, founded in 1979, showcases rare Civil War portraits and stories behind them.

  • Civil War photography is vast—estimated at 40 million images taken, with millions surviving.

  • Collectors see themselves as “caretakers” of history, preserving identity and legacy.

  • Ron enhanced the magazine’s format, shifting to full-color, high-quality paper.

  • He collaborates with Kurt Luther on photo sleuthing using tech and crowdsourcing.

  • A database of 10,000+ identified soldiers is now available online and via JSTOR.

  • Traveling exhibits like Faces of Freedom bring Civil War stories to new audiences.

Episode 265: Spared and Shared: How One Man Made Civil War History Accessible to All

Episode 259: Digging Into Civil War Pension Files with Brian Rhinehart

Links:

About My Guest:

Ronald S. Coddington began collecting Civil War-era photography as a teenager, and he has never stopped. He has a passion for researching images from this tumultuous period and telling the stories behind them. A journalist by profession, he is the Editor and Publisher of Military Images, a quarterly magazine that showcases, interprets, and preserves Civil War portrait photography. He is the author of the five-volume series, Faces of the Civil War (Johns Hopkins University Press), and Gettysburg Faces: Portraits and Personal Accounts (Gettysburg Publishing). His writings have appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Civil War Monitor, Civil War Times, Civil War News, and elsewhere. You can follow his trips down the research rabbit hole on Life in the Civil War Research Trail weekdays on YouTube.

About Maureen Taylor:

Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective® helps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others.   Learn more at Maureentaylor.com

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