Silk lace and linen shawl given to Harriet Tubman by Queen Victoria

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

Harriet Tubman escaped the bonds of slavery as a young woman in the early 1800s. She returned to the South many times as a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad to lead other African Americans to freedom. During the Civil War, Tubman served as a spy, nurse, and cook for Union Forces. In 1863, she helped free more than 700 African Americans during a raid in South Carolina - a feat that earned her the nickname "General Tubman." England's Queen Victoria gave Tubman this shawl around 1897. From Changing America: The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863, and the March on Washington, 1963. A white, square-shaped shawl made of silk lace and linen, given to Harriet Tubman by Queen Victoria around 1897.

Catalog date

ca. 1897

Recorded places

Auburn, Cayuga County, New York, United States, North and Central America; England, Europe

Recorded subjects

African American; Activism; Clothing and dress; Emancipation; Freedom; Slavery

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