Two Vintage Photos of West Confederate Avenue
Here we feature two very special early 20th century photographs. Thanks to these two photographs, multiple witness trees have been identified, trees which otherwise would have no known extant evidence to prove their witness tree status.
1. 1900s Postcard by the Rotograph Company
The Rotograph Company of New York City produced and sold postcards for a short period of time – from 1904 to 1911 only. Yet in that brief space of time, they produced two million different postcards. They specialized in colorizing many of these postcards, such as this view of West Confederate Avenue. This image was taken from a position just north of the Pee Dee Artillery, facing south.
From left-to-right, let us highlight some objects of interest in this then-and-now comparison of this 1900s postcard:
Label “A” marks two trees which appear in both photos. Whether either is a witness tree cannot be said for certain: estimates as to their growth rates based on these images suggest they could have sprouted near enough to either side of 1863 to prevent us from making a conclusive determination either way. (2024 update: the left hand, or nearer, of the two trees fell over this year in a storm. The inside was largely rotted away, making it literally impossible to accurately count the number of rings; hence we will never know if it was a witness tree).
The tree marked “X” is no longer extant.
Witness Tree 04 is growing behind the tree marked “Y”, which itself no longer stands.
This is the only known vintage photograph of Witness Tree 05, a tree whose distinct double-trunk makes identification in the field easy.
Witness Tree 07 stands behind the tree labeled “Z”, which is no longer extant. There used to be three trees standing practically on the avenue here, on its eastern edge; now two remain.
Witness Tree 09 appears in two vintage photographs: the postcard here, and the 1931 photograph featured below on this page. This is the only hickory witness tree in this image; the others are all white oaks.
This is the only known vintage picture in which Witness Tree 06 appears.
Finally, we may point out that the artists of the Rotograph Company frequently drew in pedestrians and horses and carriages into their postcards. This is one such example.
We are very thankful that Joe Maroney has made this postcard image available for us to post here.
2. 1931 William Storrick Photograph
William Storrick (1856-1951) was originally hired to be the park forester at Gettysburg. He was responsible for the project to save over a dozen witness trees in 1916-7 by injecting their rotted-out trunks with concrete (find the story here). Later he became a licensed battlefield guide, and was appointed the first supervisor of the battlefield guides. Retiring in 1930, Storrick published Gettysburg: The Place, the Battle, the Outcome in 1931. In this book we find this extraordinary photograph of West Confederate Avenue.
The photographer here is standing just south of the Crenshaw Artillery, his camera pointing north up West Confederate Avenue. An astonishing 7 witness trees were captured in this image.
Except for Witness Tree 09, all the trees identified in the photos are white oaks. From left-to-right, here is what we see in the then-and-now comparison at left:
Witness Tree 09, the only hickory of the group, appears both here and in the 1900s postcard image featured above.
Witness Trees 07 and 08 are a pair of white oaks that have stood practically on West Confederate Avenue ever since the latter was carved out of Seminary Ridge.
Witness Tree 03 and Witness Tree 04 can be just barely discerned in the far distance.
The tree labeled “X” is no longer extant.
This is the only known vintage photograph of Witness Trees 10 and 11.