Jeremy Cox

The (Salisbury, Md.) Daily Times

SALISBURY, Md. — Just in time for the grand opening of a visitors center celebrating her early life on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Harriet Tubman has a new look.

A previously undocumented photograph has emerged from the ether of history, showing the Underground Railroad "conductor" in her younger days — slim, impeccably dressed and confident.

“I’m so excited because it shows her so young and beautifully dressed," said Kate Clifford Larson, a historian and author of a Tubman biography. “She’s strong. It’s just amazing.”

“To find this photograph after all these years really contextualizes a different aspect of her life," said Robert Parker, superintendent of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park. "You see her as this beautiful, resilient and determined young woman.”

The photograph's discovery, disclosed earlier this month by a New York auction house selling the artifact on behalf of its owner, comes at an auspicious time for the National Park Service. The Church Creek historical park, which opened in 2015, is set to open its visitors center March 11.

Anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman to replace Jackson on $20 bill

National park honoring Underground Railroad heroine Harriet Tubman made official

The photograph resurfaced too late for it to be referenced among the 17-acre facility's exhibits, Parker said. He hopes the winner of the March 30 auction turns out to be a public institution that allows the park to put it on display, either temporarily or permanently.

Only a handful of photographs of the abolitionist and activist are known to exist, Larson said.

Born in southern Dorchester County, Tubman was enslaved for 30 years before escaping in 1849 to Philadelphia. She returned over and over again, leading dozens of slaves to freedom in the North during a 10-year-period. For her efforts, she became known as “Moses” by African-American and white abolitionists.

Last year, the Treasury Department announced plans to make Tubman the new face of the $20 bill.

A sister national park preserves places associated with Tubman's later life as a suffragist and abolitionist in Auburn, N.Y. The Maryland facility, operated in concert with the state Department of Natural Resources, shines a spotlight on her years helping African Americans escape to freedom, Parker said.

Larson estimates that the newly found photograph was taken in Auburn between 1866-68, when Tubman was 43 to 46 years old. It is the earliest known photo of Tubman.

Larson said many people have approached her through the years seeking to authenticate photographs of 19th century black women they suspected to be Tubman, but none could be conclusively shown to depict the icon — until now.

“This one, I don’t know, as soon as I saw it, I just knew it was her. Her face is just so familiar," she said.

The photo was part of an album of images of black and white abolitionists that was given to Emily Howland, a 19th century educator and philanthropist. The album also contains a much-reprinted photograph of Tubman, showing her standing, hands folded atop a chair in the 1870s, Larson said.

If Larson had any doubt about the photograph's subject, there was another clue: the words "Harriet Tubman" written in Howland's hand along the bottom of her skirt.

The current owner found the album at a government-sponsored auction in New York a couple ofyears ago, Larson said. He paid $250. The auction house estimates it will fetch between $20,000 and $30,000.

Larson said the new photograph could be a game-changer. Re-enactors typically portray her as an old woman, looking haggard and speaking in a raspy voice, she said. But the woman who defied slave masters and spied for the Union Army during the Civil War was full of energy.

"It changes how I think people view Tubman," Larson said.

Follow Jeremy Cox on Twitter: @Jeremy_Cox