John V. Quarstein is an award-winning historian, preservationist and author. He presently serves as historian for the city of Hampton. He previously worked as the director of the Virginia War Museum and as consultant to The Mariners' Museum's Monitor Center. Quarstein is the author of a dozen books, including Fort Monroe: The Key to the South, CSS Virginia: Mistress of Hampton Roads and A History of Ironclads: The Power of Iron Over Wood. His most recent work is The Monitor Boys: The Crew of the Union's First Ironclad. He also has produced, narrated and written several PBS documentaries, including Jamestown: Foundations of Freedom and the film series Civil War in Hampton Roads, which was awarded a 2007 Silver Telly. His latest film, Hampton: From the Sea to the Stars, was a 2011 Bronze Telly winner.

John Quarstein is the recipient of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 1993 President's Award for Historic Preservation; the Civil War Society's Preservation Award in 1996; and the United Daughters of the Confederacy's Jefferson Davis Gold Medal in 1999. Besides his lifelong interest in Tidewater Virginia's Civil War experience, Quarstein is also an avid duck hunter and decoy collector. He lives on Old Point Comfort in Hampton, Virginia, and on his family's Eastern Shore farm near Chestertown, Maryland.