Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad

On view through January 4, 2026 at the Irving Archives and Museum

They moved under moonlight. Silent, unseen, and uncertain. Armed with courage and the faint glow of the North Star, thousands risked everything for the promise of freedom.

Photographer Jeanine Michna-Bales retraces this perilous journey in Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad, a powerful series of images that follow a 2,000-mile path from Louisiana to Canada.

Each photograph captures the stillness, fear, and fragile hope that defined this secret network, a path carved by those who refused to surrender their humanity.

Step into the shadows of history. See the world as they might have seen it, mile by mile, night by night, on the long road to freedom.

Learn more at irvingarchivesandmuseum.com