The Gettysburg Museum of the American Civil War’s Gilder Lehrman Institute Special Exhibits Gallery Hallway at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum & Visitor Center is presenting “Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad.”
The exhibit opened on Nov. 10. Photographer Jeanine Michna-Bales has spent more than a decade meticulously researching “fugitive” slaves and the ways they escaped to freedom.
Michna-Bales documented numerous square miles — about 2,000 — and is based on actual sites, cities, and places that freedom-seekers passed through their journey. Whether they were slaves trying to escape or free Blacks and whites trying to help, both sides risked everything for the cause of freedom.
Michna-Bales has images from cotton plantations south of Natchitoches, Louisiana all the way north to the Canadian Border to help reveal what the long road to freedom looked like. This exhibition features beautifully dramatic color photographs, ephemera, and narratives that tell the story of the Underground Railroad.
The exhibition was organized by ExhibitsUSA, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance. It runs through Jan. 7.
There is also an exhibit on the soldier during the Civil War.
For more information, go to GettsyburgFoundation.org.
