1945 (ca.), William H. Johnson, Harriet Tubman -- Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington)
From the museum label:
Johnson's double portrait celebrates abolitionist, Civil War scout, and suffragist Harriet Tubman (ca. 1822-1913). He used a popular nineteenth-century woodcut for the commanding image of the younger Tubman. Standing tall in a striped Civil War-era dress, she holds a shotgun at her side. Behind her, paths and railroad tracks refer to escape routes Tubman used as a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. Above her, the North Star shines between rising and setting suns. At the lower right, Johnson featured an older Tubman, her head draped in a shawl reminiscent of the one given to her by England's Queen Victoria, as a continuing presence in the fight for social justice.
Tubman, who probably used the Underground Railroad herself when she escaped slavery in 1849, led more than seventy people to freedom and helped them find housing and jobs in the North. More than seven hundred others were freed as a result of her work as a spy and scout for the Union army. After the Civil War she raised money for freedmen, ran a nursing home for African Americans, and campaigned for women's suffrage.
1945 (ca.), William H. Johnson, Harriet Tubman -- Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington)
From the museum label:
Johnson's double portrait celebrates abolitionist, Civil War scout, and suffragist Harriet Tubman (ca. 1822-1913). He used a popular nineteenth-century woodcut for the commanding image of the younger Tubman. Standing tall in a striped Civil War-era dress, she holds a shotgun at her side. Behind her, paths and railroad tracks refer to escape routes Tubman used as a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. Above her, the North Star shines between rising and setting suns. At the lower right, Johnson featured an older Tubman, her head draped in a shawl reminiscent of the one given to her by England's Queen Victoria, as a continuing presence in the fight for social justice.
Tubman, who probably used the Underground Railroad herself when she escaped slavery in 1849, led more than seventy people to freedom and helped them find housing and jobs in the North. More than seven hundred others were freed as a result of her work as a spy and scout for the Union army. After the Civil War she raised money for freedmen, ran a nursing home for African Americans, and campaigned for women's suffrage.