Jerry Apps is professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of many books on rural history and country life, including Old Farm: A History and Horse-Drawn Days: A Century of Farming with Horses. Jerry was born and raised on a small farm in Waushara County, Wisconsin, where he spent countless hours working in the barn, milking and feeding cows, helping to store hay in the haymow, and appreciating the barn's importance to the life of a farm.

Steve Apps is an award-winning photojournalist with twenty-five years in the newspaper industry. As a Wisconsin State Journal staff photographer he has covered a wide range of assignments including the Green Bay Packers and University of Wisconsin-Madison sports. In 2008 he received the Pro Football Hall of Fame's prestigious Dave Boss Award of Excellence; his photo "First Down" was selected as Photograph of the Year for the 2007 season. In his off-time Steve loves to travel the state documenting Wisconsin and all its beauty, including farmsteads and barns.