Underground Railroad exhibit opens at the Pink Palace Museum of Science & History

April 12, 2021 - Memphis, Tenn. - Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad, the new exhibit at the Museum of Science & History (MoSH), takes visitors on a journey along the Underground Railroad - a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid-19th century, and used by enslaved African-Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. 

Between 1830 and the end of the Civil War in 1865, an estimated 100,000 slaves chose to embark on a journey in search of freedom along the Underground Railroad.

“The exhibit starts in near total darkness, but as visitors travel along the collection of photographs, they edge toward freedom and eventually light,” said Caroline Carrico, Supervisor of Exhibits.

The exhibit is a stirring collection of photographs by Jeanine Michna-Bales based off of actual sites, cities, and places that freedom-seekers passed through during their journey. Michna-Bales has spent more than a decade meticulously researching “fugitive” slaves and the ways they escaped to freedom. 

This exhibit features beautifully dramatic color photographs, ephemera, and narratives that together tell the story of the Underground Railroad. 

To learn more about the exhibit, visit https://www.memphismuseums.org/pink-palace-museum/exhibits/through-darkness-to-light-photographs-along-the-underground-railroad/ 

For more information, please e-mail Bill Walsh at bill.walsh@memphistn.gov