civilwarsoldiers Archives - Maureen Taylor The Photo Detective Fri, 09 May 2025 13:03:13 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://maureentaylor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/cropped-site-icon-32x32.png civilwarsoldiers Archives - Maureen Taylor 32 32 99869351 Episode 266: Military Images Magazine’s Ron Coddington Shares the Stories Behind Civil War Photos https://maureentaylor.com/episode-266-military-images-magazines-ron-coddington-shares-the-stories-behind-civil-war-photos/ Sun, 18 May 2025 04:06:34 +0000 https://maureentaylor.com/?p=83226 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. […]

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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

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

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]]> 83226 Episode 239:Discovering Civil War Ancestors Through Photography: Tips and Tools for Family Historians https://maureentaylor.com/episode-239discovering-civil-war-ancestors-through-photography-tips-and-tools-for-family-historians/ Sun, 28 Jul 2024 04:05:36 +0000 https://maureentaylor.com/?p=80638    This solo episode of the “Photo Detective” podcast delves into the intriguing task of discovering photographs of Civil War ancestors. Host Maureen offers a wealth of strategies and resources that not only cater to finding Civil War soldier images but also generalize to uncovering historical family photographs. Emphasizing the personal connections and untold stories […]

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 This solo episode of the “Photo Detective” podcast delves into the intriguing task of discovering photographs of Civil War ancestors. Host Maureen offers a wealth of strategies and resources that not only cater to finding Civil War soldier images but also generalize to uncovering historical family photographs. Emphasizing the personal connections and untold stories each photo can reveal, she provides a comprehensive guide to enhancing your family history through visual documentation.

Key Points from the Episode:

  • Networking with Relatives: Beyond immediate family, connect with distant relatives found through online family trees and DNA matches to explore their photo collections.
  • Library of Congress: Utilize their extensive Civil War prints and photographs collection by searching specific names or military units at loc.gov.
  • Civil War Photo Sleuth: This tool uses facial recognition to help identify unknown soldiers in Civil War-era photographs, enhancing research through a user-contributed database.
  • Historical Societies and Archives: Local historical groups often have unique collections; the story of finding an ancestor’s photo through a Facebook group underscores the potential of such resources.
  • Online Resources: Websites like Fold3.com and DeadFred.com offer extensive archives of Civil War images and other historical photographs, which can be searched by name, location, or unit.

 

Episode 32: The Man Behind DeadFred.com 

Episode 24: The Civil War Photo Sleuth

 

About Maureen Taylor:

Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveTM 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

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

The post Episode 239:Discovering Civil War Ancestors Through Photography: Tips and Tools for Family Historians appeared first on Maureen Taylor.

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