Exhibit at New York University’s Kimmel Center focuses on Black Civil War soldiers

By Jessi Mitchell

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    NEW YORK (WCBS) — Walking through Washington Square Park, you can see a variety of historical figures and features on display. Across the street outside the New York Universty Kimmel Center right now, another exhibit highlights the history of Black heroes from the Civil War.

Gazing out from the glass at the NYU Kimmel window gallery, faces unfamiliar to passersby give a glimpse into a window through time. The stares of Black Civil War soldiers stood out to NYU Tisch’s Photography and Imaging department chair Dr. Deborah Willis.

“I felt that the eyes were sending a message that there was a future,” Willis said.

Research work for another book, “Envisioning Emancipation,” led Willis to uncover hundreds of photos and documents deep in the archives of the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian and the Schomburg.

“These were men who were not, quote, citizens at the time, but they stood in front of an American flag, and they stood with a sense of pride and sense of purpose,” said Willis.

Willis devoted the past decade to curating documents for the Black Civil War Soldier exhibit-turned-book, now turned window display for all to see.

“The first person who was wounded in the war,” Willis said, describing a photo of Nick Biddle, “he was hit in Baltimore and hit by a rock. He kept the bloody handkerchief and used this as a narrative to tell his story.”

Letters between loved ones share stories revealing resilience despite the despair of war.

“The sad part about this experience also is that many men, Black and white, when they died, they were holding family photographs in their hands,” Willis said.

Uplifting Black art has been her mission since Willis started studying photography.

“There were no Black photographers in my history books,” Willis remembered. “I felt that it was necessary as an undergraduate student to do the work.”

For shining the light, Willis won the Don Tyson Prize in December, awarding her $200,000 towards her work to preserve culture.

“It has the ability, for me, to go back into my own archive and to think about the communities that I photographed since in the 1970s,” Willis said of the award.

Visitors can view “The Black Civil War Soldier” window exhibit through March 1. The book of the same name is on sale now through NYU Press.

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