Join the Museum of Art DeLand and the West Volusia Historical Society for a collaborative interactive gallery tour and historical reenactment. We will take a step back in time to explore the intriguing photographs of Hugh Mangum from Durham, North Carolina, from the early 1890s until his death in 1922 and experience some “living history” of DeLand residents from the same time period.

Mangum was an itinerant photographer who traveled a rail circuit through North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia making photographs on glass plate negatives with a “Penny” camera. Mangum photographs are distinctive for the level of comfort exhibited by his subjects in front of the camera. Though the South of his era was marked by disenfranchisement, segregation and inequality, Mangum’s multiple-image, glass plate negatives reveal the open-door policy of his studio and an artistic freshness unusual for the time period. Seen and experienced in the present, the portraits hint at unexpected relationships and histories and also confirm how historical photographs have the power to subvert familiar narratives.

DeLand counterparts from Mangum’s era will present brief tableaux and stories as we tour the gallery. “Where We Find Ourselves,” the theme of the exhibit, will feature local reenactor/storytellers sharing of their lives and times in the blossoming Athens of Florida. 

Reenactors: Blaire N. Carswell, Cheryl Floyd, Stanton O'Neal, Jaidyn Richardson, D'Montrae Harris.

Museum members and Historical Society members free admission; non-members $5.