On June 23, John
Hanson Mitchell, author of Ceremonial Time and editor
of the journal Sanctuary, gave a talk at the Thoreau
Institute on his most recent book, Looking for Mr.
Gilbert: The Reimagined Life of an African American.
Mitchell shared with an
enthusiastic audience his quest to uncover and reanimate the
life of a man whom he believes to be the first African American
landscape photographer. Resurrecting Robert Gilbert, whose
accomplishments were often ignored because of the color of his
skin, yet whose life was both unique and remarkable, Mitchell
engaged the audience in a story that was as much about race,
class, and the relationships between individuals as about
natural history and photography.
A brief slide show of
scenes possibly photographed by Gilbert, many of which were
familiar to the audience, ended the evening on a high note.
