Searching for pictures of underground railroad harriet tubman feels like a bit of a treasure hunt because, honestly, they barely exist. If you’re picturing action shots of Harriet Tubman sneaking through the Maryland woods with a lantern and a group of fugitives, you won’t find them. Photography in the 1850s was a clunky, stationary business involving heavy glass plates and long exposure times, which doesn’t exactly lend itself to secret midnight escapes.
She was a ghost.
Historians and enthusiasts often get frustrated by the lack of "real-time" imagery from her service as a conductor. Most of the famous portraits we see were taken years, or even decades, after her primary work on the Underground Railroad had ended. But that doesn’t mean the images we do have are boring. In fact, a few recently discovered photos have completely flipped our understanding of how she saw herself.
The Image You Probably Know vs. The One You Don't
Most people recognize the "Old Harriet" photo. You know the one—she’s sitting in a chair, wrapped in a thick shawl, looking weary and venerable. It’s the image of a grandmotherly figure who survived the unthinkable. It was taken around 1911 by photographer Harvey B. Lindsley, just a couple of years before she passed away in Auburn, New York.
But there’s another one.
In 2017, the Library of Congress and the National Museum of African American History and Culture jointly acquired an album that belonged to a fellow activist named Emily Howland. Inside was a portrait of Harriet Tubman from the late 1860s. This isn't the tired, elderly woman. This is a young, vibrant Harriet Tubman, likely in her early 40s. She’s wearing a stylish, structured dress with a high collar. She looks formidable. Her eyes are sharp. This photo was taken much closer to her time as a "conductor" and a Civil War spy, and it captures the raw energy of a woman who had recently spent years outrunning slave catchers and leading Union raids.
It’s the closest we get to seeing the woman who actually walked those miles.
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Why the cameras weren't there
It’s worth dwelling on the "why" for a second. The Underground Railroad was a secret, illegal network. If you were a conductor or a "passenger," the last thing you wanted was a permanent visual record of your identity or location. If a photographer had somehow dragged a mobile darkroom into the swamps of the Dorchester County border to take pictures of underground railroad harriet tubman in action, it would have been a death warrant.
Most images associated with the Underground Railroad are actually of the "stations"—the houses, barns, and false-bottom wagons—taken long after the Civil War ended.
Decoding the Symbolism in Tubman Portraits
When Harriet did sit for a portrait later in life, she was very intentional about how she appeared. Look at the photo of her standing behind a chair, wearing a lace-trimmed dress and a headscarf. This wasn't accidental.
- She wanted to project dignity.
- She was reclaiming her image from the "Aunt Harriet" caricatures that white society often tried to force on her.
- The clothing often signaled her transition from a laborer to a public speaker and activist.
Kate Clifford Larson, a premier Tubman biographer and author of Bound for the Promised Land, has pointed out that Tubman used these photos to help fund her charitable work. She’d sell "cartes-de-visite"—small, collectible photo cards—at her speaking engagements. So, while these aren't pictures of underground railroad harriet tubman while she was hiding in haylofts, they are direct products of her legacy. They were tools she used to keep her Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged running.
The Myth of the "Man-Like" Harriet
There’s this weird misconception that Tubman was a massive, hulking figure. People think she had to be physically imposing to do what she did. The photos tell a different story.
She was tiny.
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Most estimates put her around five feet tall. When you look at the full-length portraits, you see a small, compact woman. Her strength wasn't about being a giant; it was about endurance. She suffered from narcolepsy and severe headaches caused by a childhood head injury (a white overseer threw a two-pound weight at another enslaved person and hit her instead). Sometimes, she would just fall unconscious in the middle of a conversation.
The photos capture a stillness that hints at that physical toll. If you look closely at the 1860s "young" portrait, you can see a slight drooping in one eye, which some believe was a result of that traumatic brain injury.
Authentic Locations You Can Actually See
Since the photos of the woman herself are limited, many people turn to the landscapes of the Underground Railroad to fill the gap. The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Maryland is basically a giant outdoor photo album.
- The Brodess Farm: Where she grew up. It’s mostly open fields now, but the light and the terrain are exactly what she would have navigated.
- Bucktown Village Store: The site of her near-fatal head injury. The building still stands. It’s haunting to stand in the spot where her life changed forever.
- The Choptank River: This was a major navigation route. When you see photos of the marshes here, you’re looking at the actual obstacles she cleared with groups of families in tow.
These landscapes are often more revealing than a posed studio portrait. They show the scale of the challenge. Imagine walking through that chest-deep water in the winter, with no shoes and a group of terrified children, knowing that if you get caught, it's over.
How to Tell if a Photo is "Real"
The internet is a mess of misattributed photos. I've seen images of random 19th-century Black women labeled as "Harriet Tubman during the Underground Railroad" on Pinterest and social media. Always check the provenance.
Real Tubman photos are generally held by institutions like the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, or the Cayuga Museum of History and Art. If a photo looks "too modern" or features 20th-century clothing, it’s likely a movie still from a production like Harriet (2019) or a historical reenactor.
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The genuine photos are often faded, sepia-toned, and possess a certain "heaviness" in the subject's gaze. They aren't smiling. Smiling for photos wasn't a thing yet, and honestly, Harriet Tubman didn't have much to smile about when it came to the state of the world she was trying to fix.
The Impact of the Civil War Photos
We have to mention her "General Tubman" era. During the Civil War, she was a scout and a spy for the Union Army. She even led the Combahee River Raid, which liberated over 700 people.
We have photos of her from around this time—the most famous being the one where she’s seated, looking directly at the lens with a hand on her lap. She looks like a soldier without a uniform. These photos bridge the gap between her role as a fugitive conductor and her role as a recognized American hero. They show her transition from someone the law wanted to catch to someone the law (the Union, at least) relied upon.
Actionable Next Steps for Enthusiasts
If you want to go beyond a Google Image search and truly engage with the visual history of Harriet Tubman, here is how you should spend your time:
- Visit the Digital Collections: Go to the Library of Congress website and search for the "Howland Album." You can zoom in on the high-resolution scan of the 1860s Tubman portrait to see the texture of her dress and the expression in her eyes.
- Trace the Scenic Byway: If you can, drive the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway in Maryland and Delaware. Take your own photos of the terrain. Seeing the "Blackwater" marshes in person explains more about her bravery than any grainy 19th-century photo ever could.
- Support the Auburn Site: The Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Auburn, New York, is where she lived as a free woman for over 50 years. This is where most of her later-life photos were taken. Visiting her home and the AME Zion Church gives context to those images of "Old Harriet."
- Check the Currency Updates: Keep an eye on the U.S. Treasury's progress regarding the $20 bill. The design process has involved selecting the perfect historical image to represent her, which has sparked a whole new conversation about which "version" of Harriet the public should see every day.
Basically, the "pictures" of her are more than just ink on paper. They are a record of survival. Even when the camera wasn't there to catch her in the woods, the photos she left behind show a woman who was fully in control of her own story.