‘An Incredible

BY JESSICA YOUNGMAN

Maxwell doctoral student and National Park Service staff

Jessica Bowes occasionally finds pieces of old glass pushed up through the soil at the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, New York, where she got her start in archaeology with Professor Douglas Armstrong’s summer field study. Though archaeologically insignificant, the discoveries must be collected and recorded by a specialist.

Archaeologist Jessica Bowes uncovers clues about the past underground, but on this spring day, something sitting atop the soil outside Harriet Tubman’s house catches her eye.

It’s a small piece of glass next to the front porch. Even though it’s highlighted by the morning sun, most would have missed it. Bowes’ eyes are trained to the ground, always searching, it seems, for a piece of the past.

Clad in her grey and green National Park Service uniform, Bowes crouches down and collects the piece of glass and another she spots nearby. She slowly turns them in her hands, pointing out their differences. One is thick and curved, likely from an old bottle, she explains. The other is thin and flat—probably from a broken window.

Once buried, these pieces of glass were pushed to the surface by natural nudges—things like rain, tree roots and the movement of small animals and insects. It’s a process called bioturbation, Bowes says, which makes such finds nearly impossible to date and archaeologically insignificant.

“These could have been from 1950 or 1850,” says Bowes. “They could have been brought here as part of a load of fill dirt a few decades ago, or, they may have come from Tubman’s household.” continued on page 14

The possibility of the latter makes every find at the Harriet Tubman Home exciting—even for Bowes. She’s a Maxwell School graduate student and the newly minted cultural resource specialist for the site, which was recently designated the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park.

Located in Auburn, New York, the 25-acre property is where Tubman laid roots after self-emancipation, continuing her mission to care for the African American community and support the suffragist movement. It consists of a two-story brick home that served as her family’s residence, a barn, a white clapboard house that was part of her Home for the Aged, and a visitor’s center.

Each year, it draws thousands of tourists, ranging from elementary school groups and families to elected officials and, one day this past March, Grammy-winning musician Alicia Keys. An uptick in visitors is expected this year, as it’s the bicentennial of Tubman’s birth in 1822, and interest in her story has piqued with the social reckoning of recent years.

Those who take the tour may not notice pieces of glass resting on the soil, but they will see displays containing artifacts—toy figurines, teacups and more—that were unearthed by Maxwell students, including Bowes, who took part in an archaeology field study that was offered at the site for nearly 20 years.

Visitors will also hear details of Tubman’s life in freedom that would not have been known if not for the work of those students under the guidance of Maxwell anthropology Professor Douglas Armstrong, who is about to release a new book, The Archaeology of Harriet Tubman’s Life in Freedom (Syracuse University Press, 2022).

Though the archaeology course was last offered several years ago, Maxwell’s connection to the Tubman site endures. It’s evidenced by Bowes, who has come full circle with what she calls her “dream job,” and with other alumni of the program who say their findings at the site changed their perspective and, in some cases, inspired careers.