“African American Battlefields of the Civil War: Contemporary Photography by William Earle Williams”

After President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, more than 180,000 African-American soldiers fought in the Union Army, in regiments and battalions that often, unsurprisingly, drew the most thankless and unpleasant assignments, with little to no credit or recognition. They get some of their due in “African American Battlefields of the Civil War: Contemporary Photography by William Earle Williams,” now on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Williams, the Audrey A. and John L. Dusseau Professor in the Humanities and Curator of Photography at Haverford College in suburban Philadelphia, toured several battle sites in both the North and the South in the mid-to-late ‘90s. He came away with a series of haunting black-and-white photographs, pregnant with history: A moss-strewn Mississippi cemetery, a pitted earthworks at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, the remains of a plantation in Lorman, Mississippi, and more than 50 other photographs. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 12:15 to 7 p.m. Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays. Through September 14. Caroline Wiess Law Building, 1001 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-639-7300 or visit www.mfah.org. $6 to $7.
Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: May 13. Continues through Sept. 14, 2008