Images from the Prints & Photographs Division’s collections help to illustrate the sustained contributions of Black Americans to the United States through military service over the course of the nation’s history. We hope you can join us for one of two “Finding Pictures: African Americans in the Military” webinar sessions this month (details at the bottom of the post), where we will show you a range of sample images from the collections, and provide some tips for searching our online catalog to find more. The images below are a small selection representing the kinds of images we will discuss.
Nearly 200,000 Black Americans fought in the American Civil War. The image below shows Sergeant Major William L. Henderson and Hospital Steward Thomas H.S. Pennington of the 20th U.S. Colored Troops Infantry Regiment. Soldiers represented in the collections are often unidentified in the historical documentation, so we are grateful that in this case the names of these men were written on the back of the photograph, enabling us to identify them in the online catalog record description.

This photograph shows an unidentified Union soldier standing in front of a painted backdrop that features elements of a military camp, including tents, an American flag, and a group of soldiers chatting.

Moving forward several decades, we can see that images of Black soldiers from World War I are also represented in the collections. This photograph of two unidentified infantry soldiers demonstrates the continued popularity of painted backdrops. Might the train in the background signal that these men are soon to be deployed?

Tuskegee Airmen Robert W. Williams and Ronald W. Reeves can be seen in the foreground of this photograph taken by photographer Toni Frissell at a briefing in Ramitelli, Italy in March of 1945.

Around the same time, Susan Baptist, a member of the Women’s Army Corps, is shown in this image operating a projector. She was responsible for showing both training films and popular movies to boost morale.

These are but a few of the images in the collections that relate to the history of African Americans’ service in the military. We hope you are able to join us for one of our webinar sessions to see more.
Learn More:
- Register for the free virtual orientation, which will be offered twice: on February 8 at 12pm EST and on February 16 at 3pm EST.
- Read a Picture This blog post about an iconic photograph from the Civil War of a soldier and his family.
- Explore the Gladstone Collection of African American Photographs and the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs to see more images related to the Civil War.
Comments (13)
I’d like to see phots of military and civilian inventors and exemplary citizens in a book and on line as the book banning manifests to bring biographical stories to the public.
Please create a book about the black men and women in military, inventors and other people who made an impact without and with recognition. In light of book banning this could wedge in the space
Beautiful pictures.
Memories for eternety!!!
This is wonderful. Thank you for the opportunity to explore this historical resource.
Thank you for your interest in attending! I signed you up, and you should receive an email confirmation.
An you publish many of these and other photos in a book?
Can you schedule me for the class ono February 16th?
Thank you so much for sharing this information of Black History.
I am so proud of the contributions and sacrifices made to the development and preservation of this nation. Thank you so much.
What is the reason for not recording the orientations? I am at work at 1:00 pm and cannot attend.
Thank you for this suggestion. Now that we have a year of experience with creating webinars, we’re ready to look into the possibility of recording them and the additional resources needed to include transcriptions. Your encouragement is appreciated!
Beth, there are many books out there about African American soldiers and sailors who have served throughout America’s history. Check out Black Submariners in the U.S. Navy, 1940-1975 and African American Casualties in the Navy, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine in WW II, both by myself.
I have portrait of a Negro Platoon possible from the late 40s or early 50s. He was stationed in Fort Lee, Virginia. He also He involved in the Korean Conflict. The two pictures mean so much to me He passed away in 2014. The larger one is the whole squadron.