At Harvard’s Peabody Museum, the photograph as reliquary

C AMBRIDGE — The subjects of the 44 photographs in Wendel A. White ’s “Manifest: Thirteen Colonies” range in date from the 1700s to early in this century. The show runs at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology through April 13.

The subjects themselves are no less diverse. They include books, manuscripts, photographs, a pair of handmade socks, a worn brogan, locks of hair, a pressed corsage, a butter dish, a flute, shackles, a dollhouse, a pair of dolls. What those items have in common are two things.

One is straightforward enough. Each item belongs to some institution in one of the original 13 states or what is now the District of Columbia, hence the exhibition subtitle. The second thing is also straightforward but also very complex.

All of the artifacts relate to the African-American experience in this country. Advertisement White was the 2021 recipient of the Peabody’s Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography . Previous fellows include Guy Tillim, Dayanita Singh, and Zhang Xiao .

So he’s in good company. “Manifest” is small in size. All of the photos but one hang in a single gallery.

Yet the show is sweeping in implication and expressivity. That expressivity is intrinsic to the artifacts (and their associations) rather than the result of any effect White has striven for. There’s nothing obtrusive or overt about his approach.

As much messenger as artist, he’s putting his camera at the service of his subject matter. Art is not his primary c.