Photographers Recreate Iconic, 114-Year-Old Photo Of Morristown

MORRISTOWN, NJ — Two amateur photographers have captured a modern recreation of a 100+ year-old snapshot that most Morristown residents will recognize.

Many residents may have seen the locally famous photo “Morristown Green” around town, including at Jersey Boy Bagels, the Morristown and Morris Township Library, or the Morristown Medical Center.

The original image was captured in 1912 by William Parker, a local photographer who ran his own studio in Morristown. Parker used a Kodak Cirkut No. 8, a “clockwork-driven rotating camera that produced negatives over three feet long.”

Parker’s “Morristown Green” depicts the park from an elevated perspective, along with its surrounding streets occupied by Ford Model Ts, horse buggies, and well-dressed pedestrians.

The modern-day Morristown duo, Marshall Roshto and Christian Fiedler, went the extra mile for authenticity by using the same century-old camera to snap their photo: the Kodak Cirkut No. 8.

“There’s a small but thriving community of people who are interested in these cameras, and they restore them, and I’d say maybe a dozen people in the U.S. can shoot on these things,” Roshto told Patch. “We bought it on eBay, and it was pretty shot… it needed some serious repairs.”

Roshto, who has a degree in mechanical engineering, ended up ordering several spare (and broken) parts from other circuit cameras and tinkered away until he had one functional Kodak Cirkut No. 8.

The process of acquiring and rebuilding the camera took Roshto and Fiedler about a year to complete. Once the camera was up and running, the duo began the processes needed to recreate Parker’s image.

After acquiring the necessary permits from Morristown and enlisting some help from friends on promises of providing lunch, the team began setting up scaffolding to achieve the same elevated perspective seen in Parker’s photograph.

Once everything was set up, it was time to snap the panorama.

“Each shot is expensive to make, just because the film itself is expensive. We had seven rolls (of film) to shoot,” Roshto said. “We took seven shots, and each one probably cost about $40 a piece to do. We went through them, and this is what we considered the best of the seven. So we didn’t stitch multiple ones together; this is just one shot.”

The new shot was captured in November 2025. After developing the film in Roshto’s makeshift dark room (his guest room bathroom), the image was ready.

Roshto and Fiedler’s panorama, titled “Revolution on the Green,” shows both stark differences and similarities when juxtaposed with Parker’s image. The Model Ts and horse buggies have been swapped out with sedans and SUVs, but there’s a similar aura presented in both photographs.

“It’s much busier; we intentionally left in some of the blurry cars, because it kind of felt right. Things are moving much faster nowadays, the busyness kind of just felt like a nice transition from what seems to be a slower-paced picture in the original,” Roshto told Patch. “The things that stayed the same, I think, are just as interesting as the things that have changed… A lot of the building architecture is similar.

“Other than that, it’s just people going about their day,” Roshto added. “It’s fun to see people just living their lives, even 110 years apart.”

Both Parker’s “Morristown Green” and the duo’s “Revolution on the Green” will be presented side by side at the library's F.M. Kirby Gallery starting on Thursday, with a special opening reception at 7 p.m.

Roshto and Fiedler’s other photography work, including their “sprocket shots” and “solargraphs,” will be displayed at the library as well.

With a century-old camera at their disposal, folks should keep an eye out for future projects from these amateur photographers.