What better area of the country for photos about soldiers? The newest exhibition at the Washington State History Museum, opening June 20, is "The American Soldier," a comprehensive look at the best photographs from 150 years of Americans at war, beginning with the Civil War and continuing through the seemingly never-ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Exhibition curator Cyma Rubin, who is also the curator and producer of the highly successful exhibition, "Capture the Moment: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs," said that other than equipment and terrain, the nine wars are all the same.

"The faces are all the same." The truth of that statement becomes abundantly clear when touring the show. The slogging through mud, the fighting in trenches, the bravery in the face of injury and death, the love of family and comrades, the joy of french citizens being liberated in two different wars, the celebratory homecoming - it's all the same.

Rubin said the idea for the exhibition came to her after seeing a photo in the New York Times magazine of a soldier sitting on a pile of blankets smoking a cigarette with a "what am I doing here attitude." She said that from that she figured out the concept of putting together an exhibition that showed the "camaraderie, family and humor, the everyday life of soldiers at war."

From out of 4,000 photographs she chose the 116 she thought best represented the concept.

Photos from the Civil War were staged because the equipment available at the time took so long to set up. Pictured are regiments of African-American soldiers (180,000 fought in that war) and groups of women. She said photos of women were hard to find, but there were many women in that war. One group of Union volunteers in uniforms and holding rifles, are all "debutants and prostitutes," Rubin said.

Also from that war is a picture of America's first Medal of Honor winner, Sgt. James H. Harris, and America's "first sniper," known as "California Joe."

There's a photo of African-Americans in Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War who had been recruited from the Buffalo Soldiers.

A fascinating photo at a World War I recruiting station in San Antonio, Texas, shows lines of men in civvies walking in as lines of uniformed soldiers walk out.

Beginning in the First World War and becoming much more pronounced in Vietnam, the photographs are candid, often quickly shot in the heat of battle by photographers who put their own lives at risk. Many were killed.

There is an amazing group of three photos of the D-Day invasion at Normandy Beach showing the approach, the landing and the aftermath.

To maybe better understand our own area, and the military that work here every day, an exhibit like this makes sense to land here ... if even for just a short while.

The exhibition is sponsored by EADS North America. It runs June 20 to Sept. 6 at the Washington State History Museum, 1911 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma, 1.888.238.4373, www.washingtonhistory.org/.