The presentation of Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now, an exhibition organized by the National Portrait Gallery, will be complemented by A Closer Look: Silhouette Artists in Antebellum Mississippi, a gathering of 17 additional works from the NPG as well as from the collections of Lansdowne House (Natchez), the Historic New Orleans Collection, and the Museum itself. This “focus” exhibition created by Museum Chief Curator Dr. Roger Ward, highlights works by the most famous “scissor artists” of the early 19th century during their sojourns in New Orleans, Natchez, and Vicksburg—portraits of both eminent Mississippians and of celebrities who had come South for the winter social season of 1843-1844. Some of the sitters’ names will be recognized by present-day visitors such as those of Sarah Pearce Vick, the proprietor of Nitta Yuma Plantation in Sharkey County; of Edward McGehee, a renowned and powerful jurist who presided over the immense assets of Bowling Green Plantation, near Woodville; and of Dr. Montroville Wilson Dickeson, the Philadelphia scientist who, as one of North America’s first archaeologists, organized and supervised the excavation of the majestic mounds and Grand Village of the Natchez in Adams County.

This exhibition is free and open to the public.