Stephen Recker Press Info

For use on the web, download this photograph of Stephen Recker here (754kb).

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For use on the web, download this cover of Rare Images of Antietam here (2.1MB).

For print, right-click this link to download a hi-res image (3.2MB).

Full biography here

Short bio: Stephen Recker is a collector of rare Antietam photographs and relics. Items from his collection can be seen on battlefield waysides, in the newly renovated museum at Antietam National Battlefield, as well as in his book Rare Images of Antietam, and the Photographers Who Took Them. Recker is a member of Antietam Battlefield Guides, a service he founded in partnership with WMIA, the non-profit at Antietam National Battlefield. He produced Virtual Gettysburg, a critically acclaimed interactive Civil War battlefield tour; Antietam Artifacts, a CD-ROM with images of rare postcards from the Maryland Campaign of 1862; and www.virtualantietam.com, and recently edited and published Shadowing Grant: Reminiscences of the United States Hospital Transport Services in the Civil War 1864-65. He began his professional career as a lead guitarist, recording and touring with Al Stewart, the Spencer Davis Group, Mary Wells, and Tommy Chong, and as technician for Ringo Starr, Kiss, Diana Ross, and Madonna. In multimedia, he produced for Apple Computer, Adobe, and the Smithsonian, and was named a “Top 100 Producer” by AV Multimedia Producer Magazine. He is currently a Senior Associate - Drupal Developer at ICF International in Fairfax, Virginia, where he has worked on web sites for the White House (ONDCP), The Department of Defense (ATF), and others. Recker is a graduate of Boston’s Berklee College of Music and lives with his family in Maryland.

TALK DESCRIPTIONS

Rare Images of Antietam - Soon after Alexander Gardner’s photographic wagons left the blood-strewn Antietam Battlefield, local photographers began taking images on the field. While much has been written about Gardner’s ‘death studies,’ little is known about these other early images. Our speaker, Stephen Recker, has found over 600 of them, many unknown and unseen, including some exciting recent finds, and will use them to show how the battle happened and how the battlefield has changed over the years. In his talk, Recker will also discuss his efforts to collect, catalog, and interpret photographs of the Maryland Campaign of 1862 sites in his book Rare Images of Antietam and the Photographers Who Took Them.
O.T. Reilly: Sharpsburg Relics and Remembrances - Oliver Thomas Reilly was born in Keedysville in 1857 and at the age of five witnessed the Battle of Sharpsburg. At fifteen, he become the first Antietam Battlefield guide and escorted many notable veterans around the field, including James Longstreet and Ambrose Burnside. In the 1890s, Reilly moved to Sharpsburg and opened his War View and Relics Shop near the town square, from which he published picture postcards and a guide book of the battle. Starting in 1887, Reilly wrote a weekly newspaper column chronicling the movement of veterans and relics through his shop and through the town. It is this unique trove of historic remembrances that is the basis for Stephen Recker's upcoming book on Reilly, and for his talk. Recker is a leading expert on Reilly, and will bring rare O.T. Reilly relics for the group to enjoy.
Early Hagerstown Photographers - During research for his book, “Rare Images of Antietam and the Photographers Who Took Them,” historian Stephen Recker amassed a huge collection of local early images by the “Hagerstown Artists,” a loosely affiliated group of nineteenth-century photographers including E.M Recher, B.W.T. Phreaner, J.H. Wagoner and W.B. King. In his talk, Recker will share scarce views of Washington County from Hagerstown, east along the Western Maryland Railway tracks up and over South Mountain with a stop at Pen Mar, as well as extremely rare stereo views of south county along the Shenandoah Valley Line over the Potomac and the B&O Railroad bridge near Keedysville. Then and Now images will bring the past together with the modern day.
Alexandria to Antietam: Exploring McClellan's Route in the 1862 Maryland Campaign - Based on extensive original research this talk explores the little known sites and rarelt discussed intrigues along the route of "Lil Mac" and his army from when the general stepped off the boat in Alexandria through his regaining of command in Washington and his pursuit of Lee into Western Maryland.