Lost trove of century-old photographs reveals stunning American kaleidoscope of community and nation.

University of Missouri professor Berkley Hudson will present surprising, painful and poignant photographs and stories emanating from tens of thousands of images made by white photographer O.N. Pruitt during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation.

Our 21st century world is awash with photographs. How can we make sense of this? MacArthur Fellow Deborah Willis of NYU suggests: start with a single image that reflects “expressive power.” Pruitt’s images offer that opportunity—to slow down, look and discover.

What questions do our own family and community photographs pose? What might we learn from them?

Pruitt documented Black and white community life: Floods of biblical proportion, baptisms, carnival shows, yeoman farmers and wealthy power brokers, among the last public executions outside a courthouse, celebrities such as native son and playwright Tennessee Williams, and a Black farmer whose Great Depression image inspired a blues song. Pruitt photographed everyone everywhere that he pointed his large format camera.