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Things to Do > Attractions > Arts & Monuments > Monuments > Black History Month Celebration

Swing Low: A Memorial to Harriet Tubman

Plan for Harriet Tubman monument

Illustration of the initial plan for Swing Low: A Memorial to Harriet Tubman
Landscape architect Quennell Rothschild & Partners

 

Front and side views of artist Allison Saar's model for the bronze sculpture

 

Swing Low: A Memorial to Harriet Tubman
Sculptor Allison Saar; Landscape architect Quennell Rothschild & Partners, 2008
Tubman Triangle, 123rd Street, St. Nicholas Avenue, & Frederick Douglass Boulevard
Bronze, natural boulder, landscaping

Front view of Swing Low: A Memorial to Harriet Tubman, June 18, 2008.  Photo by C. Djuric.

This sculpture, a full standing portrait of Tubman, honors the abolitionist who was an instrumental leader of the "Underground Railroad," the clandestine system used to usher escaped slaves to free states. The memorial was commissioned through the Department of Cultural Affairs' Percent for Art Program. Saar depicts Tubman in a heroically-sized bronze intended to show her "not as the conductor of the Underground Railroad but as the train itself, an unstoppable locomotive," with the roots of slavery pulled up in her wake.