Featured Publications

For more than a decade, I have researched, written, and published books documenting the history of Reed Brothers Dodge, the photography of Lewis Reed, and the people and places that shaped Montgomery County, Maryland.

Together, these publications preserve a remarkable collection of historic photographs, family records, and local stories for future generations. Each book is independently researched, designed, and published by Jeanne T. Gartner.

Montgomery County: Then and Now

Photography of Lewis Reed and Barry Gartner

Montgomery County: Then and Now brings the historic photography of Lewis Reed together with contemporary images created by his grandson, Barry Gartner.

Reed’s early photographs are paired with modern views taken by Gartner from the same or a closely matching vantage point. Presented side by side, the images reveal how familiar roads, buildings, communities, and landscapes have changed; and, in some cases, how much has remained recognizable.

The book includes photo pairs from Rockville, Gaithersburg, Darnestown, Barnesville, Clarksburg, the C&O Canal, and other locations throughout Montgomery County. Together, the photographs create a visual conversation across generations and more than a century of local history.

This compact softcover volume was inspired by Montgomery History’s online exhibit of the same name, curated by Jeanne T. Gartner and Sarah Hedlund.

Explore the Montgomery History Online Exhibit

Book ordering information will be posted here as soon as it becomes available.

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Montgomery County Through the Lens of Lewis Reed

A Photographic Journey, 1900–1930

This compact softcover photo book presents a carefully curated selection of Lewis Reed’s photographs of Montgomery County during the early twentieth century.

Traveling first by motorcycle and later by automobile, Reed photographed the county’s towns, rural roads, railroads, electric trolleys, farms, waterways, recreation, transportation, and community life. His images capture a brief period when horse-drawn vehicles still shared the road with the first automobiles and Montgomery County stood on the threshold of profound change.

Created as a companion to the Montgomery History online exhibit Montgomery County, 1900–1930: Through the Lens of Lewis Reed, the book offers an affordable introduction to Reed’s photography and the remarkable world he preserved through his camera.

Explore the Montgomery History Online Exhibit

Book ordering information will be posted here as soon as it becomes available.

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Lewis Reed Photograph Collection, 1898–1960

Second Edition

The Lewis Reed Photograph Collection presents more than 2,500 images created by Lewis Reed over six decades. Reed began experimenting with photography as a boy in the late 1890s and went on to create an extraordinary visual record of Montgomery County, Maryland and the surrounding Mid-Atlantic region.

His photographs document country roads, farms, railroads, canals, towns, family gatherings, early automobiles, motorcycles, historic buildings, and everyday life during a period of dramatic change. Many of the scenes and landmarks he photographed have long since disappeared.

This expanded 384-page second edition arranges Reed’s photographs into thematic sections and pairs them with detailed captions that identify people, places, and events whenever possible. Many of the images appear in print here for the first time.

View or Order on Blurb

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Portrait of an Automobile Dealer

The History of Reed Brothers Dodge, Fourth Edition

Beginning with the opening of Rockville Garage in 1915, Portrait of an Automobile Dealer chronicles the history of Reed Brothers Dodge and the generations of the Reed and Gartner families who carried the business forward for nearly a century.

More than the story of a local automobile dealership, the book follows the transformation of Rockville and Montgomery County alongside the growth of the American automobile industry. Historic photographs, advertisements, documents, newspaper accounts, and family memories trace the business from the earliest days of motoring through its final years.

The third edition received the 2016 Arthur M. Wagman Award for Historic Preservation Communication from Peerless Rockville. The expanded fourth edition contains more than seventy additional images, newly discovered historical material, and updated dates and timelines.

View or Order on Blurb

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Preserving Montgomery County History

These books grew from a personal effort to preserve the history of my family, Reed Brothers Dodge, and the photographic legacy of my grandfather, Lewis Reed. Over time, that work expanded into a broader record of Montgomery County’s changing communities, transportation, businesses, landmarks, and everyday life.

These books are self-published and available through Blurb’s print-on-demand service or, in the case of select companion editions, in limited quantities through Montgomery History. Several titles are also available for research in the Jane C. Sween Research Library at Montgomery History.

Thank you for supporting the preservation and sharing of local history.

Jeanne T. Gartner
Author, researcher, and curator
Reed Brothers Dodge History