Our traveling exhibit, Faces of Freedom, made its Kentucky debut at Camp Nelson National Monument as part of the park’s 160th-anniversary commemoration, “A Portal into the Past: Camp Nelson, Photography, and the End of the Civil War.” We’re honored to partner with the National Park Service and the Camp Nelson team to bring these powerful stories to a site where freedom was claimed and defended.
The exhibition features 37 high-quality prints made from original Civil War portraits in public and private collections. Each portrait is paired with a short biographical sketch that introduces the individual’s wartime service and life beyond the uniform. The images focus on Black soldiers and sailors who served in the U.S. Colored Troops and the U.S. Navy, putting names and stories to faces that shaped the Union war effort and the meaning of citizenship. Some of the men pictured and profiled went on to become Buffalo soldiers. A digital exhibit catalog includes the images and stories.
The National Park Service team, led by Superintendent Ernie Price and Steve Phan, Chief of Interpretation, Education, and Visitor Services, collaborated with facilities staff to build wonderful displays to showcase the exhibit.
Camp Nelson is the ideal place for this chapter of the exhibit’s journey. Established by the U.S. Army in 1863 as a major supply base, the site evolved into one of the nation’s largest recruitment and training centers for United States Colored Troops—and a refuge center for their families. More than 10,000 formerly enslaved men became soldiers here in 1864–65, and the camp’s story illuminates both the hardships and the hope bound up in emancipation for freedom seekers.
This stop at Camp Nelson marks the fifth venue for Faces of Freedom. Earlier installations included the Hubbard House Underground Railroad Museum in Ashtabula, Ohio, the Goodridge Freedom Center and Underground Railroad Museum in York, Pa., Manassas National Military Park, and the Lincoln Depot Museum in Peekskill, N.Y., each welcoming visitors to encounter these portraits up close.
Faces of Freedom is produced by Military Images, the only magazine devoted exclusively to Civil War portrait photography. The exhibit is part of our broader mission to showcase, interpret and preserve these historic images—and to meet people where they are in physical and virtual communities.
We’re grateful to the National Park Service and to the many collectors, families, and institutions who have helped surface, preserve, and share these histories. If your museum, archive, or historic site is interested in hosting the exhibit, please get in touch! Email Editor and Publisher Ronald S. Coddington.