Featured News & Events

Maryland’s Rural Legacy Program will now protect some 28,000 acres of land in Dorchester County, where Harriet Tubman was born. As a story in the Daily Times describes it: “In rural Dorchester County adjacent to Blackwater Wildlife Refuge lies a 28,300-acre tract that is the best-preserved example of a natural, cultural and historic landscape unchanged since the days of the Underground Railroad. Driving through the this timeless area in Dorchester County will make it easier to imagine the ordeal those frightened runaway slaves endured as they sought freedom. That is the legacy Maryland has recently taken steps to preserve by creating the Harriet Tubman Rural Legacy Area, a move that will prevent the historic landscape from future development by private landowners.” Read the entire story here.

Lost history rediscovered! Come out Friday, Sept. 21 from 6 to 8pm to hear about newly rediscovered history about Frederick Douglass on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Join local historians and community leaders for a presentation about previously unknown high-profile visits that Frederick Douglass made, while serving as Marshal of the District of Columbia, to Cambridge, Maryland — a few miles from where Harriet Tubman was born. Presenters include Bill Jarmon of the Harriet Tubman Museum & Educational Center; John Muller, author of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C: The Lion of Anacostia; and Linda Duyer, Eastern Shore historian.

The event is free and open to all and happens at the Harriet Tubman Museum & Educational Center, (Stop #5 on the Tubman Byway), 424 Race St., Cambridge, MD.

Abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland, which adjoins Dorchester County, where Harriet Tubman was born. He went on to escape slavery and became a national figure and speaker. He returned to Talbot County and made a now famous speech in 1878, but it was previously not known that he had also visited Cambridge, Maryland in Dorchester County.  The year 2018 marks 200 years since his birth. Find out more and explore the self-guided Frederick Douglass driving tours in Talbot County.

Hear an Interpretive Program from a National Park Service ranger from 2 to 3pm on Thursday, Dec. 7, inside the Multi-Purpose room at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center, and learn how the landscape of Maryland’s Eastern Shore provided opportunities for escape for freedom seekers.

This program is free and open to the public.

ADDRESS: 4068 Golden Hill Road, Church Creek, Maryland 21622

When Harriet Tubman set off to find her freedom, summertime was in the past. In fact, many of her rescues were made in the fall or winter, making conditions much more extreme. In addition to finding her way while keeping herself and her charges hidden, these passengers needed to eat.

Adapted from the Adkins Arboretum walking tour about “nature’s role in the flight to freedom,” Julianna Pax will share “Walking the Tubman Trail” on Wednesday, December 6 at noon. Mrs. Pax, a volunteer docent at Adkins as well as the Heritage Museums will lead the viewers, virtually, through a countryside with which Harriet would be familiar. While diminished greatly, the flora and fauna found today on the eastern shore is very close to what it was almost 200 years ago.

This presentation and discussion will work to enlighten about the types of foods that are readily available in the forest, even today. In addition, this discussion will only enhance our understanding of those who fled the institution of slavery, while, in many cases, leaving the only home they had ever know.

This offering is free and open to the public although donations are always appreciated. The Heritage Museums and Gardens of Dorchester is located at 1003 Greenway Drive in Cambridge, MD. For more information, call 410-228-7953.

When Mashona Council arrived in Dorchester County from where she lives in Atlanta, Georgia, she didn’t expect much attention. Her mission to walk the entire Maryland portion of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway was a personal challenge and a spiritual quest. But her 125-mile “Freedom Walk,” carrying the spirit of Harriet Tubman, inspired thousands as people learned of her quest through social media. She began her walk in Cambridge on Sept. 17, the same day that Tubman attempted her first escape from slavery back in 1849. She finished seven days later as she crossed the line from Maryland into Delaware.

• See what Mashona shared along the way on her Facebook page.
• See the WMDT-TV coverage of Mashona completing her walk.
• Read the front-page story in the Star Democrat.

Heralds of Hope Theater Company presents Harriet Tubman: Defender on Saturday, Sept 16 at 6pm and Sunday, Sept. 17 at 3pm. This is a powerful presentation of Harriet Tubman’s life and journey on the Underground Railroad told in narrative and song. Written and directed by Percy W. Thomas, this one-woman play depicts Harriet Tubman at the age of 50 reflecting back on her childhood memories and proclaiming her future. Through narrative, song, and visual projections, the audience experiences both the pain and elation of Harriet’s being freed from the bounds of slavery, and how she became one of the most famous women in the history of the United States.

The performance happens at the ArtBar at Liv Again, 317 High Street (second floor) in downtown Cambridge, MD. Tickets: For adults, $20 in advance, $25 at the door. For groups, $15 in advance, $20 at the door. For students, $10 in advance, $15 at the door. Buy tickets in advance.

ADDRESS: 317 High St., Cambridge, MD 21613

John H. Miller, PhD, will be the speaker on “Amazing Grace:” Sailing into Slavery, Sailing into Freedom” at the Richardson Maritime Museum on Saturday, June 24, from 1 to 2 pm at 401 High Street, Cambridge, MD. Admission is free.
Miller’s talk is based on research for a course he taught as one of some 35 faculty during the University of Virginia’s Semester at Sea program aboard the student ship MV World Odyssey during its four-month 2015 voyage of Atlantic exploration. During this journey about 400 undergraduate students from the USA and abroad took for-credit courses on various subjects while sailing to ports in the Mediterranean, West Africa, and across the Atlantic’s infamous “Middle Passage” to Brazil, and onward to the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, and ending in San Diego.

We are all familiar with then-enslaved Frederick Douglass’s famous ode to the white sails of vessels on Chesapeake’s Eastern Bay that he hoped would one day sail him into to freedom from bondage in Talbot County. But few of us are familiar with the lesser-known words of then-free Ibo tribesman Olaudah Equiano who later recorded his horror on being captured and then seeing the white sails of a large ship off the Bight of Benin, a ship that would sail him into slavery in the supposed “El Dorado” of the New World.

Miller will discuss the shared experiences that enmeshed all aboard these “Guineamen,” a euphemism for slave ships. From the ruthless, all-powerful captains of these vessels and their motley down-and-out crews to the enslaved African “cargo” held ‘tween decks, all aboard descended into hell. One of these captains was John Newton, a man who later repented of his voyages aboard slave ships, became an Anglican minister, and wrote the world-famous hymn, Amazing Grace. “Whatever ‘amazing grace’ may have come from the international slave trade,” says Miller, “can be found in the even lesser-known and extraordinarily poignant stories about personal post-voyage encounters between slave ships’ crews and their ‘cargo.’” On a more local level, Miller will also explore aspects of the “maritime underground railroad” that operated along America’s mid-Atlantic during the 19th century, including the story of the schooner Pearl.

John H. Miller received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh and his BA from Yale College. He currently co-facilitates literature courses with his colleague, John Ford, at the Academy for Lifelong Learning at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, where Miller formerly served as Vice President of Advancement.

The presentation at the Richardson Maritime Museum has been planned in concert with the Choptank River Lighthouse, located just down High Street on the waterfront at Long Wharf Park. On the same day as Miller’s talk, the Lighthouse is opening a new exhibit titled, “View from the Lighthouse: The Underground Railroad.”

Housed on the second floor, that exhibit looks out over the scenes visible in all four directions from the Lighthouse and shows how they relate to the stories of Dorchester Country native Harriet Tubman and other passengers and conductors on the Underground Railroad with local roots.

The Lighthouse will be open to visitors on June 24 in the hours before and after “Amazing Grace” at the Richardson Museum. In addition, the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center in downtown Cambridge will be open to visitors that day as well. That museum is located at 424 Race Street, just two blocks from the Richardson Museum.

ADDRESS of RICHARDSON MUSEUM: 401 High St., Cambridge, MD 21613

A weekend of events will help celebrate the grand opening of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in and around Cambridge, Maryland. The new visitor center opens to the public on March 11.

• FAQs about the grand opening.

• Download a PDF with info on the shuttles, events, and maps showing their locations.

• For Tubman-related events during the rest of the year, see our 2017 Tubman Events Roundup.

• Check out the recent media coverage about the new Tubman Visitor Center.

FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2017

Rarely Seen Artifacts at Bucktown Village Store

A site along the Harriet Tubman Byway that’s usually open by appointment only, Bucktown Village Store will be open all day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Visitors will get a personal tour of the general store from the 1800s from members of the Meredith family, the fifth generation to live in Bucktown, who will discuss Tubman, the store, and life in the 19th century. Visitors will also have a rare opportunity to view Underground Railroad artifacts owned by the family, including the runaway ad for “Minty” (later known as Harriet Tubman). Questions? Call 410-901-9255.
Time: 10am-4pm
Location: Bucktown Village Store, 4303 Bucktown Rd., Cambridge, MD 21613

Harriet: A Community Conversation

One-woman presentation of the life of Harriet Tubman by Diana Y (Thompson), Cambridge, MD, native and Columbia University oral history fellow. Reception and conversation to follow. Free will offering.
Time: 6:30pm
Location: Christ Episcopal Church, Church and High Sts., Cambridge, MD.

There’s a Message in the Music: Celebrating the Life of Harriet Tubman

In celebration of the life of Harriet Tubman, the Art Bar at Liv Again hosts Jazzy Blu on March 10 at 7:30pm. Doors open at 6pm. An evening of food, dance, and entertainment on the eve of the grand opening of the new Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center, about 20 minutes away. $20 per person. Buy advance tickets.
Time: 7:30-11pm
Location: The Art Bar, 317 High St., Cambridge, MD 21613

SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017

FREE SHUTTLE!

FREE SHUTTLE! Because of the large crowds expected and because parking at the Tubman Visitor Center is limited, there will be free shuttles running  on both Saturday, March 11 and Sunday, March 12 from downtown Cambridge to the Tubman Visitor Center (about a 20-minute drive). The shuttles will run from 10am to 4pm with the last shuttle leaving Cambridge at 3pm. The shuttles will leave from and return to the parking lot across from the City Hall building at 410 Academy Street in Cambridge, MD. Parking is free. Shuttles will leave about every 15 minutes. On Saturday only, here will be an additional shuttle between the Tubman Visitor Center and Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, which is hosting the Eagle Festival on March 11.

Grand Opening Events at Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center

Free events including Harriet Tubman re-enactor, creative writing workshop, book signing, talk by the center’s architect, children’s activities, and more. At the center in Church Creek, MD. Browse the full schedule. The Eagle Festival is also happening the same day about a mile away at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.
Time: 9am-5pm
Location: Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center, 4068 Golden Hill Rd, Church Creek, MD 21622

Community Prayer Breakfast

In honor of the grand opening of the Tubman Visitor Center, there will be a Community Prayer Breakfast in Cambridge, Maryland, about 20 minutes from the new center, on Saturday, March 11. The event includes a morning message and musical tribute by Grammy Award-winning Bishop Marvin Winans. Also performing will be vocalist Ayanna Gregory, daughter of comedian and activist Dick Gregory. The master of ceremonies will be news reporter Sam Ford of ABC7/WJLA-TV. There will also be a book signing with author Carole Boston-Weatherford, author of Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom.
Time: 9am to 12pm
Location: Refuge Temple Church of God, Hattie L. Stanley Dream Center, 800 Robbins St., Cambridge, MD
Tickets: $30 per person. Buy tickets online or in person at the Dorchester County Visitor Center, 2 Rose Hill Pl., Cambridge, MD.

Rarely Seen Artifacts at Bucktown Village Store

A site along the Harriet Tubman Byway that’s usually open by appointment only, Bucktown Village Store will be open all day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Visitors will get a personal tour of the general store from the 1800s from members of the Meredith family, the fifth generation to live in Bucktown, who will discuss Tubman, the store, and life in the 19th century. Visitors will also have a rare opportunity to view Underground Railroad artifacts owned by the family, including the runaway ad for “Minty” (later known as Harriet Tubman). Questions? Call 410-901-9255.
Time: 10am-4pm
Location: Bucktown Village Store, 4303 Bucktown Rd., Cambridge, MD 21613

Linchester Mill Open

A site along the Harriet Tubman Byway usually open by appointment only this time of year, the historic Linchester Mill will be open from 10am to 4pm on Saturday.
Time: 10am-4pm
Location: Linchester Mill, 3390 Linchester Rd, Preston, MD 21655

Museum of Rural Life Underground Railroad Exhibit

The Museum of Rural Life features Underground Railroad Exhibits. Located near the Caroline Courthouse, a site along the Tubman Byway, the museum will be open extended hours for grand opening weekend.
Time: 11am-4pm
Location: Museum of Rural Life, 16 N. 2nd St, Denton, MD 21629

Praying and Singing Band

The Singing and Praying Band of Delaware and Maryland will perform and give a documentary on the history and ties of Harriet Tubman to the south Dorchester County area on Saturday, March 11 at 1pm at New Revived United Methodist Church in Taylors Island, Maryland. The group belongs to an African American devotional/musical tradition unique to the Delmarva region. The church where they will perform is a site along the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, a 125-mile self-guided driving tour. New Revived was established in 1876 as an African-American church. Free will offering.
Time: 1pm
Location: New Revived United Methodist Church, 4350 Smithville Rd, Taylors Island, MD 21669

View from the Lighthouse: The Underground Railroad

Visit the Choptank River Lighthouse at Long Wharf on the waterfront in Cambridge and soak in commanding views of the historic Choptank River while hearing a presentation on this topic by Jim Duffy, the award-winning author of Eastern Shore Road Trips and the forthcoming Tubman Travel Companion. Duffy’s talk will encompass stories on a broad array of Underground Railroad topics linked to the area right around the Lighthouse, from Harriet Tubman’s family roots to the first escape she ever engineered, and much more. The Lighthouse is ordinarily closed this time of year. In addition to being open for the presentation, the Lighthouse will be open from 11am to 5pm on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 10-12. Admission is free. Donations are appreciated. The program is presented by the Cambridge Lighthouse Foundation. Information: ChoptankLighthouse@gmail.com; 410-463-2635.
Time: Presentation at 2:30pm; Lighthouse open for visits 10am-5pm
Location: Choptank River Lighthouse, High and Water Streets, Cambridge, MD 21613

Harriet Tubman Banquet

This annual dinner celebrates the life of Harriet Tubman. Sponsored by the Harriet Tubman Organization. This year’s theme is “Harriet Ross Tubman is Home, we Thank You – Part III.” Cost is $40 per person. At Minnette Dick Hall, Cambridge, MD. For information or tickets, call 410-228-0401 or email hariettubman@verizon.net.
Time: 2:45pm
Location: Minnette Dick Hall at St. Mary’s Church, 2002 Hambrooks Blvd, Cambridge, MD 21613

Greg Hatza and ORGANization: Celebrate Harriet Tubman

In celebration of the opening of the Tubman Visitor Center, this accomplished quartet will play traditional jazz, blues, pop and more. Find out more about the quartet at greghatza.com. Advance tickets cost $20; $25 at the door (if not sold out). Buy tickets.
Time: 7-10pm
Location: Art Bar at Liv Again, 317 High St., Second Floor, Cambridge, MD 21613

Walking Tour of the Tilly Escape

The Seaford Museum presents a walking tour about Tubman’s “Tilly Escape” through Seaford starting at the museum. The group will walk down to the town dock and then “walk in the footsteps of Harriet Tubman,” up the hill to Gateway Park where Harriet Tubman spent the night at the Hotel and was almost captured.
Time: 3pm
Location: Seaford Museum, 203 High St., Seaford, DE 19973

Harriet Tubman Day in Delaware

In celebration of Harriet Tubman Day and the grand opening of the Tubman Visitor Center in Maryland, the Underground Railroad Coalition of Delaware plans commemorative programming:

• Last Stop to Freedom: Wilmington’s Enduring Role in the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman’s Legacy. 11am-12:30pm; Wilmington Friends Meeting House, 401 N. West St., Wilmington, DE. Read more.
• The Underground Railroad in Delaware. Hands-on activities and living history. 11am to 3pm, Delaware Historical Society, 504 N. Market St., Wilmington. DE. Read more.
• Thomas Garrett and his Role in the History of Delaware Slavery. March 11 at 11am and 1pm and March 12 at 2pm, New Castle Court House Museum, 211 Delaware St., New Castle, DE.  Read more.

To find out more about the Tubman Byway in Delaware, visit tubmanbywaydelaware.org.

SUNDAY, MARCH 12, 2017

Grand Opening Events at Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center

Free events including Harriet Tubman re-enactor, creative writing workshop, book signing, talk by the center’s architect, children’s activities, and more. At the center in Church Creek, MD. Browse the full schedule.
Time: 9am-5pm
Location: Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center, 4068 Golden Hill Rd, Church Creek, MD 21622

Rarely Seen Artifacts at Bucktown Village Store

A site along the Harriet Tubman Byway that’s usually open by appointment only, Bucktown Village Store will be open all day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Visitors will get a personal tour of the general store from the 1800s from members of the Meredith family, the fifth generation to live in Bucktown, who will discuss Tubman, the store, and life in the 19th century. Visitors will also have a rare opportunity to view Underground Railroad artifacts owned by the family, including the runaway ad for “Minty” (later known as Harriet Tubman). Questions? Call 410-901-9255.
Time: 10am-4pm
Location: Bucktown Village Store, 4303 Bucktown Rd., Cambridge, MD 21613

View from the Lighthouse: The Underground Railroad

Visit the Choptank River Lighthouse at Long Wharf on the waterfront in Cambridge and soak in commanding views of the historic Choptank River while hearing a presentation on this topic by Jim Duffy, the award-winning author of Eastern Shore Road Trips and the forthcoming Tubman Travel Companion. Duffy’s talk will encompass stories on a broad array of Underground Railroad topics linked to the area right around the Lighthouse, from Harriet Tubman’s family roots to the first escape she ever engineered, and much more. The Lighthouse is ordinarily closed this time of year. In addition to being open for the presentation, the Lighthouse will be open from 11am to 5pm on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 10-12. Admission is free. Donations are appreciated. The program is presented by the Cambridge Lighthouse Foundation. Information: ChoptankLighthouse@gmail.com; 410-463-2635.
Time: Presentation at 11am; Lighthouse open for visits 10am-5pm
Location: Choptank River Lighthouse, High and Water Streets, Cambridge, MD 21613

Celebrate the life and heroism of a true American patriot in the original one-person play, “Harriet Tubman: Defender” on Saturday, March 4 at 7pm. The performance happens at the Dorchester Center for the Arts in Cambridge, Maryland.  The play stars Eunice Lewis-Seagraves and is a production of the Heralds of Hope Theater. Tickets cost $10 each. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center. Purchase tickets in advance at EventBrite.com or by calling 410-228-3131. A limited number of tickets will be sold at the door if available. This event is happening in honor of the grand opening of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in March.

This story is written by guest blogger Jim Duffy. A long-time professional writer and Harriet Tubman enthusiast, Jim is the power behind Secrets of the Eastern Shore, a website,  online store, and Facebook page in which he shares stories, photos, and products that celebrate the Eastern Shore. He recently published Eastern Shore Road Trips; 27 One-Day Adventures on Delmarva.

Chris Elcock first visited the future site of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitors Center in July of 2008. He’d come across the bridge from Baltimore that day in order to help decide whether his firm, GWWO Architects, would throw its hat in the ring when it came time to design the facility.

Now slated to open in March of 2017, the center is the latest in a flurry of projects honoring the heroine of the Underground Railroad, who was born and spent her early years on the Eastern Shore. The relatively new Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway covers some 35 stops and 125 miles of Dorchester and Caroline counties. The federal government plans to put Tubman’s image on the next redesign of the $20 bill. And there is another new park in the works in upstate New York, where Tubman spent her later years.

The visitors center here will be a state facility developed in partnership with the National Park Service. Its 17-acre site brushes up against Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in South Dorchester County, a smidge south of where Route 335 meets up with Key Wallace Drive.

The scene that greeted Elcock on his first visit amounted to a rather typical stretch of Eastern Shore marshland. Grasses swayed in the foreground. Off in the distance were stands of trees, glimpses of waterways, and patches of corn and other farm crops. Eagles and osprey soared overhead. Bugs were abundant. The only structure on the site back then was an old farmhouse, and it was slated for demolition.

A woman standing near him surveyed the scene and said, in tone of dismay, “There’s nothing here.”

Elcock had a different take on the scene. He was looking out over a landscape chock full of stories, drama, and meaning. In his mind’s eye, he could see slaves on the run, making their way through distant trees along the Underground Railroad. He could see others, too, the ones who decided to stay put, as they worked in nearby fields.

He tried to imagine the details of their lives, to get a sense for what might have been in their hearts and heads. What fears, hopes, doubts, and misgivings did they harbor while trying to decide whether to stay or make a run for it? “When she said that, it was all I could do to keep quiet,” Elcock says.

He is no longer feeling that need to be quiet. Not only did GWWO win the job, the firm put Elcock in charge of the 12-member team that designed the Tubman Underground Railroad Visitors Center. On a recent Saturday afternoon, Elcock showed off that design for an enthusiastic crowd of about 50 people gathered in an exhibit room at the future center.

“This is a short woman—she is five-foot-nothing, and she weighs a hundred-and-nothing. She has epilepsy—this is the story of a woman with a disability, too. And she is illiterate. And she is a slave. But she made a change in the world, didn’t she?”

The first step in the design process, Elcock explained, involved his team drawing up an array of possible plans for the overall site. The winning plan has the title “The View North,” because of the way it has visitors entering at the site’s southern edge and then making their way into the story of the Underground Railroad along a cone-shaped route that will open up gradually as they move through the facility to the north, toward freedom.

“If you really commit to the story you’re telling, it ends up driving all of your decisions,” Elcock said.

On first glance, the visitors center has a modest profile. Approaching on Route 335, visitors will see a run of four barn-like shapes that are built on a scale and in a style that fits in pretty well with the buildings on nearby farms. One of those shapes is dotted with rectangular windows arrayed in an intriguingly random pattern. Elcock explained that the light from those windows will illuminate an exhibit area inside devoted to Tubman’s spirituality.

The three large exhibit areas that make up the interior of the center were mostly empty on the day of Elcock’s presentation. He explained how those exhibits, which are currently being fabricated, will be set up in a series of “stations” laid out in a fashion that reinforces the cone-shaped message on the grounds outside. Visitors will start out in relatively tight quarters on the south end of the space and then find more and more breathing room and natural light as they move northward and get deeper into the exhibits.

In some places, overhead lights are set on the ceiling in a random pattern, so as to evoke the stars in the night sky that many slaves on the run used to find their way north. Eventually, of course, visitors will need to turn around in the space and head back south, but Elcock pointed out how even this ends up echoing Tubman’s story, given the way she decided to return time and again into the danger zone in order to help loved ones make their journey to freedom.

On the grounds outside the exhibit halls, there will be an expansive “memorial garden” that loops around the northern end of the visitors center site. That is one section of the center that will develop slowly over the course of time, with elements of the landscape design taking full shape only as growing seasons come and go.

Elcock said he envisions a similar transformation involving the zinc panels that cover much of the exterior of the exhibit building. “Zinc will dull over time,” he explained. “It will take on something that is like a healing patina. What we hope, of course, is that that’s just what happens over time to attitudes in this country about slavery and race.”

All of the architects involved in the project spent countless hours engrossed in the various books that have been written about Tubman and the Underground Railroad. That part of the experience, Elcock said, left them all in awe of the woman who the new center will be trying to honor.

“This is a short woman—she is five-foot-nothing, and she weighs a hundred-and-nothing” he said. “She has epilepsy—this is the story of a woman with a disability, too. And she is illiterate. And she is a slave. But she made a change in the world, didn’t she?”

–writing and research by Jim Duffy, Secrets of the Eastern Shore

A tribute and tree planting for John J. Creighton, researcher, poet, and local historian, was held on Sept. 17 at the Harriet Tubman Memorial Garden in Cambridge. Creighton devoted his life to researching Harriet Tubman and the geographic areas that were associated with her life before the Civil War. His knowledge of the areas and research were the foundation for many of the national, state, and local initiatives related to Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.  He also helped many authors and scholars write books about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. The Washington Post Magazine recently featured a story about Creighton.

Chris Elcock, the lead architect behind the design of the new Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center, gave a presentation about the building’s hidden symbolism in July. Writer Jim Duffy writes about the presentation. Read the story. The Visitor Center is scheduled to have its grand opening on March 10, 2017 in Church Creek, Maryland.