Swing Low: A Memorial to Harriet Tubman
Illustration of the initial plan for Swing Low:
A Memorial to Harriet Tubman
Landscape architect Quennell Rothschild & Partners
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Front
and side views of artist Allison Saar's model for the bronze
sculpture |
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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
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.