National Gallery to Open Early Black Photo Exhibit
The Remember Me exhibition, opening November 7, presents seventy early photographs of African Americans dating to the 1840s.
Updated on Nov. 1, 2026 in African-American
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The National Gallery of Art in Washington will open the exhibition Remember Me on November 7, displaying seventy black and white photographs of African Americans arranged chronologically. The images date back to the 1840s, when the daguerreotype process was used.
Why it matters
The exhibition brings to public view rare early photographs that document Black Americans during slavery and the years surrounding its end. Some images were likely used to advocate for the abolition of slavery.
The exhibition features seventy black and white photographs spanning from the 1840s, with the chronology tied to the Civil War's end in 1865. Identities have been established for only two enslaved women among the works, leaving most subjects unnamed.
The players
National Gallery of Art
The Washington museum hosting the exhibition, which holds one of the largest public collections of American and European art in the United States.
Ross J. Kelbaugh
A collector who has searched antique shows and flea markets for images of Black Americans since 1971 and whose collection was partly acquired by the National Gallery in 2023.
The details
The show is organized chronologically under dim lighting to help preserve the photographs. It includes the portrait of Patty Atavis, who was purchased by a doctor in Baltimore County, Maryland, at age 23 and buried in the family cemetery in 1874, and a slip of paper reading 'Peculiar Institution' found in the display case of an 1860 portrait.
Timeline
1840s: Daguerreotype photography is popularized and the earliest photographs in the exhibition are made.
1865: Slavery in the United States ends with the close of the Civil War.
November 7, 2026: The Remember Me exhibition opens at the National Gallery of Art.
Legal Context
Daguerreotype portraiture arrived in the 1840s, the same decade that studios run by James Presley Ball, Glenalvin Goodridge, and Augustus Washington opened to Black clientele. The exhibition traces that photographic record forward to the Civil War's end in 1865, when slavery ended across the United States.
Visitors to Washington can view the seventy photographs in person when the exhibition opens on November 7. The display is organized chronologically under dim lighting to help preserve the images.
The takeaway
Early photographs of Black Americans record lives that official histories often left out, and this exhibition makes that record available to the public for the first time in this form.
What happens next
The Remember Me exhibition opens at the National Gallery of Art on November 7, 2026.
Further reading
Explore more on the African-American section for context on the history and culture behind this exhibition.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Mail Online.
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Should museums display historical photos of enslaved people to the public?
