David W. Wooddell is a writer, photographer, and research editor in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the author of a civil war history, Hoffman’s Army: The 31st Virginia Infantry, CSA. Retired from National Geographic after  22 years, Wooddell served as a researcher and research editor. He worked in the Art Department for 7 of those years, as the bridge between the artists and the experts. It allowed him to use both the visual and the word sides of his brain. He later assisted the editors as a Planning Council researcher, in story development, creating roadmaps of possibilities for the editors, writers, and photographers to follow (if they chose to). Wooddell worked several beats during his decades at the magazine, including marine and nautical archaeology, military history, naval history, treasure hunting, and shipwrecks. He is currently working on a history of the steam-powered tugboat, the Baltimore, a historic vessel in Baltimore Harbor. Another book in the works is on the struggle between treasure hunters and marine archaeologists.