Their Kindred Earth

Evocative new photographs of Connecticut by celebrated photographer William Earle Williams provide insight to the stories of Black American history

Their Kindred Earth gathers images of Black Connecticut's historic sites by celebrated photographer William Earle Williams. A series of connected essays illuminate how these sites connect to the larger national and international narrative of Black American history. Over the past forty years artist William Earle Williams (born 1950) has made sites of African American history more visible through his exquisite photographs. Mentored in the 1970s by the famed photographer Walker Evans, who had a home in Lyme, Williams attended the Yale School of Art at Evans's suggestion. From that Connecticut inception, Williams embarked on a decades-long journey to identify and photograph places across the country that hold histories of the slave trade, the Underground Railroad, and emancipation. Many remain unmarked and largely overlooked in a society that has long ignored Black history.
New archival research has yielded revelations about how we understand Connecticut history. In this book, Williams creates photographs that bring visibility and pay tribute to the unrecognized people who contributed to Connecticut culture and its landscape. The book includes photographs from New London, Old Lyme, Farmington, Middletown, Norwich, New Haven, Hartford, Canterbury, Brooklyn (CT), and Greenwich, including sites of importance to Black figures in the state, such as Venture Smith and David Ruggles. It features essays by Cheryl Finley, Frank Mitchell, Jennifer Stettler Parsons, Carolyn Wakeman, and Deborah Willis.