Moonrise over the Combahee River by J Henry Fair (Paul & Dalton Plantation, Yemassee, 2025)
In Harriet Tubman I Helped Hundreds to Freedom by Elizabeth Catlett (linocut 18/20, 15 x 11 inches, 1946, reprinted in 1989.
Combee photographer J Henry Fair and author Edda Fields-Black at Rose Hill Plantation on the Combahee River; photograph by Dirk Vandenberk
Leading the way: A Harper’s Weekly illustration depicts the daring moonlit raid, as Union ships, carrying Tubman (top) and 150 Black soldiers, traveled the circuitous Combahee River to free 756 enslaved people. One of the three steamboats ran aground.
Cypress Trees in Swamp (Walterboro, 2025) by J Henry Fair
Cottonmouth or Water Moccasin Snake, common to lowland swamps and waterways (Rose Hill Plantation, Yemassee, 2025), by J Henry Fair
Alligator in Rice Field by J Henry Fair (Paul and Dalton Plantation, Wiggins, 2025)
Three Freedom Fighters by William H. Johnson, (oil on paperboard, 41 ½ x 33 ⅜ inches, circa 1945)
Portrait of Harriet Tubman by James DeLoache (oil on canvas, 32 5/8 x 26 inches, 1959)
Wade In the Water by Stephen Towns (natural and synthetic fabric, polyester and cotton thread, and crystal glass, 39 x 46 inches, 2020)
Hoeing Rice, South Carolina, (stereograph, circa 1904)
Tree Fantasy by Merton D. Simpson (oil on Masonite, 21 3/4 x 17 7/8 inches, 1951)
Fierce - The Triumph of Harriet Tubman by Lori Kiplinger Pandy (bronze, 17 x 14 x 9 inches)
“We want to share the broader story of the river, of rice, and why Harriet Tubman needed to do what she did with the raid.” —Dr. Vanessa Thaxton-Ward, guest curator
Fields Point and Combahee River Wetlands (Fields Point, Combahee River, Wiggins, 2025) by J Henry Fairr
Frond of Ripe Charleston Gold Rice (Plum Hill Plantation, Yemassee, 2015), by J Henry Fairr
During her lifetime, Harriet Tubman (pictured in 1911 at age 89) never received commendations for her service during the Civil War. On Veterans Day 2024, Maryland Governor Wes Moore posthumously honored her with the title of brigadier general in the Maryland Army National Guard. In January, the Army’s Acting Deputy General Counsel officially recognized Tubman as a US Army soldier; she was soon thereafter inducted into the Army Women’s Foundation Hall of Fame.
Images by (moonrise over the combahee river) J Henry Fair with flight support from Southwings & Courtesy of (linocut) the Hampton University Museum Collection, Hampton, Virginia, ©2025 Mora-Catlett Family/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society, New York; (fair & fields-black) Dirk Vandenberk; Courtesy of (Tubman & Illustration) Library of Congress; photographs (2) by J Henry Fair; (alligator) J Henry Fair & courtesy of (book cover) Oxford University Press; image (Three freedom fighters) a Gift of the Harmon Foundation Courtesy of the Hampton University Museum Collection, Hampton, Virginia; images courtesy of (stereograph) College of Charleston Libraries; (painting) Gibbes Museum of Art; Photographs courtesy of (sculpture) The Tubman Museum, Macon, Georgia, & (Thaxton Ward) Hampton University Art Museum; photographs (2) by J Henry Fair with flight support from Southwings; (Gibbes Museum of Art) JB Mccabe & courtesy of (Tubman) Library of Congress
The multimedia exhibit will immerse visitors in this daring military operation that liberated 756 enslaved people
