Today, we visited the Harriet Tubman Cultural Center in Columbia, Maryland to experience the Oliver Cromwell Gilbert commemorative exhibit as well the rest of the impressive and immersive interpretation of the lives of African Americans in Howard County.
When the cultural center was opened in 2022, the Gilbert family wasn’t notified, nor invited. I’d learned about it from a friend, who’d sent me a post-facto newspaper clipping. I recognized my purchased image on Oliver Gilbert on the backdrop and wondered why we, the family, had been excluded, especially since they’d used my name on the backdrop panel – photo ‘courtesy of Stephanie Gilbert’.
My view of ‘courtesy’ is somewhat different than reproducing without asking, but perhaps that’s a technicality.
I inquired about the decision to ignore us and our work to bring Oliver’s legacy to light, to fact check, to research, to cite, to pay for images and documents, to travel from place to place (inclusive of a Canadian freedom trail trip) to spend 10 years immersed in WORK to get that done….but who’s counting….
Ultimately, I found it easier and more satisfying to celebrate the honor bestowed upon Oliver Gilbert than to complain about protocols and snubs. Oliver Gilbert always rose above indignities, so I’m sure this is no different.
The Feds awarded a grant to Howard County Historical Society to have the statue created. I wrote to ask for a copy of the grant application to review what material had been submitted. My work had been cited as a thesis and the lynchpin of the application. Glad they knew who we were. Too bad they never called, texted, emailed or sent a carrier pigeon.
Oliver Cromwell Gilbert has a statue! It’s ALL GOOD! Credit to HCHS for executing the mission and now that we are on solid terms, they’ve been superbly supportive. We currently have a team of HCHS researchers working on an Oliver effort. These things work out.
We visited the Tubman Center without an invite and, alone and unnoticed, and stepped into the room where Grandfather Oliver was standing. The interpretive panel was accurate, though I did cringe at the large subtitle of ‘Fugitive Slave’, a term which is no longer used to describe Freedom Seekers and Self Liberators. That’s what self-liberators were called at the time, so it is historically accurate.
All’s well that ends well. Oliver Gilbert has been tributed with a statue, despite unconventional circumstances. We hope future endeavors will tread with greater care and respect for the work of freedmen.
The rest of the Harriet Tubman Cultural Center was enjoyable and enlightening, focusing on the history of the Harriet Tubman Junior and Senior High School which opened in 1949 as Howard County’s only all-black high school until it was closed by desegregation in 1965. Well worth a visit!
