Native Midlander Jeanine Michna-Bales is giving people a new look at American history. A selection from her “Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad” is featured in a national touring exhibit, “Southbound: Photographs of and about the new South.”

Michna-Bales was born in Midland, but was raised in the Midwest, spending time between Indiana and Florida with her parents. When she was working at an ad agency in San Francisco in 2002, she started conducting research on the Underground Railroad. Michna-Bales found herself writing three to four pages of notes every day.