Author Berkley Hudson will present “Revelations: Discovering Common Ground and Uncommon Ground in Pruitt’s Possum Town Pictures” on June 5 at noon in the Meeting Room of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System (CLPLS).

Hudson will show slides of images made by Columbus photographer O.N. Pruitt and talk about the surprises he and his four friends made as they peeled back layers of history and culture.

Hudson, associate professor of media history at the University of Missouri, is the author of “O.N. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Photographing Trouble and Resilience in the American South.” He curated the National Endowment for Humanities traveling photograph exhibition focused on Pruitt — a longtime photographer based in Columbus from 1920 to 1960. Pruitt, a white man, documented beauty, grace, and trauma during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation.

Hudson will also be available to personally sign copies of his UNC Press book of Pruitt’s pictures.

In conjunction with Hudson’s book talk, the library will also display its newest pop-up traveling exhibit titled “Mr. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Photographing Trouble and Resilience in the American South”. It will be on display from June 5 through 30 on the first floor of the library. The exhibit includes six free-standing panels featuring the work of Columbus photographer O.N. Pruitt from the 1910s-1960s. His pictures provide a candid and ultimately disturbing visual history of the inequality of that era in the Jim Crow American South and serve as an invaluable resource for those interested in civil rights, photography and American history.

The exhibit is part of the library’s new traveling exhibit lending program. CLPLS will loan its traveling exhibits for free to archives, libraries, museums, and other public indoor venues. The traveling exhibits are only available for loan to institutions in Mississippi and Alabama. To learn more about the program or to book one of the library’s traveling exhibits visit lowndeslibrary.com/traveling-exhibits.

Funding for the exhibit “Mr. Pruitt’s Possum Town” was made possible by the Friends of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System. It was curated by Berkley Hudson, Columbus native and associate professor at the University of Missouri. It was produced by Curatorial, Inc.

Both the book talk and the exhibit are free and open to the public.

Books are available from Friendly City Books.

Lunch will be provided by the Friends of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System.

For more information call (662) 329-5304.