"The Forgotten Faces of Fort Craig"

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More About

• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum
• African-American Museum
• Thomas Smith
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

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Come face-to-face with history at "The Forgotten Faces of Fort Craig" at the African-American Museum. Presented by the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, the exhibit includes the mummified remains of a Fort Craig Buffalo Soldier, looted from his resting place by grave robbers. A team of experts eventually discovered that the mummy was Thomas Smith, a 20-year-old African American who was part of the 125th Infantry Company A. He died from typhoid fever in 1866. Before it was all said and done, the Smithsonian Institute, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamations and the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, along with a host of anthropologists, museum curators, pathologists, historians, a forensic sculptor and even an engineering professor had a hand in piecing together the story of Smith and his fellow soldiers. Local forensic sculptor Amanda Danning has been tasked with re-creating Smith's face for the exhibit, which organizers believe to be the first known facial reconstruction of a Buffalo Soldier. Also on display are artifacts and photographs, along with personal items of other soldiers found at the site, who have since been exhumed and moved for safekeeping. (Please note: there are two African-American Museums — this display is at the one on Main.) 10:30 a.m., 12:30, 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, noon, 2 and 4 p.m. Sundays. 4816 Main. For information, call 713-942-8920 or visit www.buffalosoldiermuseum.com. $5 to $15.
Mondays-Sundays. Starts: Feb. 1. Continues through Feb. 28, 2010