HARRIET TUBMAN AND WILLIAM SEWARD
Leaders for Freedom and Justice
518-388-6267
HARRIET AND WILLIAM HAVE ARRIVED!
Thank you donors and community members for making this possible. The day of the unveiling, we were delighted to see so many community members and supporters of the project. Thank you to all the speakers and performers for making the celebration memorable. To join the donors, click here.
Visit the statue at the
Hon. Karen B. Johnson
Schenectady County Public Library
IN THE NEWS
Schenectady Library Honors Tubman and Seward, The Sanctuary for Independent Media, Podcast Willie Terry, May 29, 2019
Tubman-Seward Unveiling, 6 NEWS WRGB, May 17, 2019
Statue of Tubman and Seward unveiled at library - Union grad statesman and Underground Railroad conductor were friends and allies against slavery, Schenectady Gazette, May 18, 2019
Seward-Tubman sculpture finds home at county library Schenectady Gazette, October 31, 2017
The slave and the diplomat - Harriet Tubman and William Seward were partners in the search for justice The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, August 13, 2018
Schenectady Seward-Tubman statue back on track - Sculptor builds new studio, resumes work after fire destroys previous work space, Schenectady Gazette, January 28, 2019
Tubman-Seward statue rises - Dedication ceremony set for May 17 in Schenectady,
Times Union, February 12, 2019
Statue of William Seward and Harriet Tubman currently being rebuilt, Concordiensis, February 28, 2019
DONORS
We are grateful for the generous support of the following donors:
Virginia and Frank Wicks *
Carl George *
Anita Paul and David Gerhan
Jim and Jean Underwood
Linda Patrik and David Kaczynski
Twitty and Constance Styles *
Cara Molyneaux
Arnold Seiken
Roger Hull *
Brian and Judith Merriam
Robert Ringlee *
Miriam Butzel *
Butzel Family Foundation
Norman Maender
David and Jean Cossey
Carmela St George
Barbara Armstrong and Robert Coppola
Rhonda Becker
Anastasia Pease
Eshragh Motahar
Paul and Christina Friedman
Katherine Lynes
Roger and Seneca Hoerl
Karen and Rodney Crosby
David and Ann Songayllo Hannay *
Cherrice Traver
Jonathan and Rachel Marr
Marsha and Leonard Mortimore
James and Jean McLaughlin
Andrea Worthington and Robert Olberg
Kesheng Yu
Paul Wehrum
Barry Kramer
Rebecca Koopman
Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara
Ted Vinick
Becky Cortez
Martha Huggins and Malcolm Willison
Faith and Dexter Benedict
Mary and Phillip Lyford
Clifford Brown
Caroline Bardwell
Margaret Craven Snowden, M.D.
Nancy Papish
Julie Pieper-Hemmings
Senator James Tedisco
Charles and Linda Becker
Charles and Marianne Szuberla
Patricia and Keith Barney
Wayne and Amy Brule
Jim and Cei Mack
Martin and Sharon Strosberg
Mary O’Keeffe
Margo and James Strosberg, M.D.
Peter and Judy Nocera
Mary and Thomas Werner
Michele and Randall Collins
Donald O. Reid
Darren and Lisa Tracy
West Branch Engineering and Consulting
Philip and Jo Ann Adams
Kenneth Baker
Marcia M. Steiner
Nicholas C. Barber
Carmel Patrick
Alden and Gay Doolittle
Betty Pieper
Robert McEvoy
Joe Spedafora
Linda Patrik and David Kaczynski
Matthew George
Brian Reh *
Anita Paul
Susan and Gustave Davis, M.D.
Lek and James Meyer
Laura Lee
First Reformed Church of Schenectady
Wicks Family *
Jim and Carol McCord
Capital District Civil War Round Table
Jonathan R. Miller (in memory of Aaron Rees ’95)
Kathleen Pierone
Ann M. Cole
Professional Women
Schenectady County Historical Society
Hugh and Vaughn Nevin
John Polimeni
John and Lucy Halstead
Kim and Gary Mabee
Naomi Bristol
Lois and Richardson Atkinson
Brendan Degan Weingarten Savage
Henry M. Butzel Family Foundation
Lidia Pasamanick
The Honorable Richard and Bernice Russo
Touhey Family Foundation *
John and Margaret Watraus
Susan Savage
Daniel and Shari Grygas
David Gerhan and Anita Paul
Deborah LaFond
Betty Carol Barlyn
Willie Terry
Mario Salerno
Philip Hilferty
Lewis and Irene Greenstein
Kim Scheverman
Arnold and Ione Seiken
David and Karen Bradley
David Kaczynski and Linda Patrik*
The Brockbank Family
Estate of Marjorie Kenney (in Memory of Alice P Kenney) *
William Keat
Eric Bersch
Liz Paul and Paul John
Rene and William Curtin
Steve Rockwell
Jean Libby
The Reverend Ruby J. Smith
Dr Nancy D. Fitzroy
Janis Polishook
L. William Davis
Dr Walter and Anne Robb
Bradley and Catherine Lewis
Christopher Gardner
Kathleen LoGiudice and John Blanchard
Christopher Leonard
Philip M. Williamson
Jean Hayden Hutchins (in Memory of Dr Charles Steinmetz)
Eric and Kent Johnson* (in Memory of Mayor Karen Johnson)
The Wicks Family * (in Memory of Dr Rollo and Hazel Wicks)
*Donations of $ 1000 or more.
** List as of 11/1/2019
WILLIAM SEWARD
To learn more about 19th century America through the lens of the William H. Seward family. Visit the Seward House Museum in Auburn, NY.
William Seward was the son of a well to do farmer and slave owner near New York City. He was a graduate of Union College in Schenectady and shortly after made his home in Auburn, NY. Seward was elected Governor, Senator and served as Lincoln’s Secretary of State. An ardent abolitionist, Seward’s stand prevented him from being nominated for President, losing out to Lincoln. Seward and his wife, Francis, made their home a stop on the Underground Railroad through upstate New York. Both Tubman and Seward chose Auburn as their home, and Seward both gave and sold property to Tubman so that she could bring her family from the cold of Canada to the relatively milder winters of Central New York. These two heroic leaders against human bondage were also friends, both risking the laws of the time to aid those fleeing to reach safety, both speaking tirelessly against that bondage, both neighbors and friends.
HARRIET TUBMAN
Learn more about Ms. Tubman's core values and legacy. Visit the Harriet Tubman Homestead in Auburn, NY.
Harriet Tubman is justly famous as a conductor on the Underground Railway, rescuing many friends and family from the eastern shore of Maryland where she was born into bondage. She was 27 when she escaped to freedom and began freeing others, as well as speaking on the abolitionist lecture circuit in Central New York and the Boston area. In the Capital District she is remembered for riding up to the courthouse in Troy to grab a man being returned by US Marshalls to slavery in the South under the Fugitive Slave Act. She rode off with him to Schenectady where she put him on a boat on the Erie Canal. After the Civil War she campaigned for Universal Suffrage.
The Underground Railroad was the movement that enslaved African Americans used to gain freedom in the 19th Century. The Capital Region of New York State was visited by thousands of fugitives seeking freedom in the years prior to the Civil War. URHPCR, Inc. seeks to acknowledge the active underground railroad movement in our region, to raise awareness about and stimulate interest in this little recognized and inspiring part of our history, to understand it in its historic context, to encourage the recognition of local historic figures and the activities in which they engaged, to preserve that history, and to relate that history with us today.
Dexter Benedict, Sculptor
Dexter Benedict is the owner and operator of Fire Works Foundry in Penn Yan, New York. Dexter has been working in bronze ever since the 1970's, when he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a Masters of Fine Arts in Sculpture. When Dexter moved to New York, he built the Fire Works Foundry and Sculpture Studio to produce and cast his own work. Currently, he produces works ranging from small pedestal pieces to monumental figures in bronze.
ART IN PROGRESS
Dexter with the clay model, ready for wax modes and pouring the molten bronze.