Upcoming Special Exhibitions

Purchased Lives: The American Slave Trade From 1808 to 1865

February 10, 2019 – August 25, 2019

Main Special Exhibition Space

Purchased Lives: The American Slave Trade from 1808 to 1865 illustrates the pain and injustice of the American domestic slave trade, illuminating just how widespread the practice of slavery was in American life, as well as its impact on enslaved families across the country.

This exhibition, originally curated by The Historic New Orleans Collection, showcases more than 75 original artifacts, slave narratives, and oral histories. Through interactive displays, visitors engage directly with historical record by tracking the shipment of more than 70,000 people to New Orleans. Purchased Lives also contains a collection of “Lost Friends” ads placed after the Civil War by newly freed people attempting to locate Illinois family members.

Exhibition by The Historic New Orleans Collection.

Learn more about the exhibition.

Memory Unearthed: The Lodz Ghetto Photographs of Henryk Ross

September 22, 2019 – January 12, 2020

Main Special Exhibition Space

Excavating the box of negatives and documents Henryk Ross buried in the ghetto at 12 Jagielonska Street, Lodz, March 1945. © Art Gallery of Ontario.

Memory Unearthed offers an extraordinarily rare glimpse of life inside the Lodz Ghetto during its existence from 1940 to 1944, through the lens of Polish Jewish photojournalist Henryk Ross (1910–1991).

This exhibit presents more than 300 of Ross’s powerful photographs, comprising a moving, intimate visual record of the Holocaust. The images are accompanied by artifacts, including Ross’s own identity card, and ghetto notices. An album of contact prints, handcrafted by Ross and shown in its entirety as the centerpiece of the exhibition, serves as a summation of his memories, capturing his personal narrative.

Organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario.