Statue Honoring Harriet Tubman Of Underground Railroad Has Piece Stolen: Officials

ANNAPOLIS, MD — A piece of an abolitionist Harriet Tubman statue was stolen recently from outside a downtown Annapolis museum, officials said.

The museum is offering a $1,000 reward for information that helps it recover the stolen statue piece.

The statue is located outside the Banneker-Douglass Museum. The museum and city police said the statue is now missing a beaded staff, also called a vévé.

Tubman was previously holding the staff in her left hand. The vévé is about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide at its handle. The museum is reviewing video footage with the Annapolis Police Department in an effort to recover the staff.

The Banneker-Douglass Museum, located at 84 Franklin St., is Maryland's official museum of African American heritage and culture.

• Related: Placing Harriet Tubman On $20 Bill To Speed Up: Biden Officials

Tubman was a Dorchester County, Maryland, native who was born about 1822 into slavery, used the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom in the North in 1849, then made 19 trips to the South to free more than 300 enslaved African Americans. She served as a Union scout during the Civil War and championed women's voting rights.

The Biden administration has resurrected plans to make Tubman the face of the $20 bill.

The theft and defacement saddened Chanel Johnson, the executive director of the museum and the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture.

"If anyone has any information connected to the theft, please let us know," Johnson said in a Dec. 21 press release. "We are asking for the community's assistance in this effort. We are praying for the return of the vévé to restore the statue to its original state."

The Tubman statue, called "Araminta with Rifle and Vévé," was sculpted in 2017 by Dr. Joyce J. Scott. Scott originally created the piece for a 2018 Tubman exhibit in Hamilton, New Jersey.

The statue is currently at the Banneker-Douglass museum on loan from Goya Contemporary Gallery in Baltimore. The museum installed the statue in September 2022 in commemoration of the Harriet Tubman Bicentennial celebration and as a part of a current exhibit called The Radical Voice of Blackness Speaks of Resistance and Joy.

The museum announced its reward offer on Friday.

The Annapolis Police Department posted these photos of the stolen staff, asking the public for tips on Jan. 5. Officers think the staff was stolen on Dec. 17, 2022 between midnight and 1 a.m.

Authorities asked anybody with information to contact Detective DeLeonibus at (410) 268-9000 extension 5805 or lcdeleonibus@annapolis.gov. The case number is 22-26652.