8th Cavalry, Pennsylvania, Hummelbaugh Field

Far more than a century has passed since the blood of a divided nation spilled on the farmlands of Gettysburg.  Many people fascinated with the Civil War visit the site each year.  But this historic Pennsylvania battleground attracted photographer William Earle Williams because of its personal resonance for him as an African American. 

Williams' Gettysburg is deceptively placid: well-groomed and somnolent under the sun.  On closer inspection, his meditative photographs from his "Gettysburg Memorial Park Series" reveal unexpected metaphors amid the orderly rural geometry.  For example, a dying peach tree stands at the head of a soldierly column.  We notice, too, that the monuments to fallen heroes will be engulfed by indifferent vegetation unless tended by those who remember.  Nudged by such cues, we may even begin to people these tranquil vistas with imagined scenes of valor or anguish.