Underground Railroad Historic Marker

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I know there is a lot of public art in the area that remains to be mapped, but I’m still surprised when I discover art underfoot. Literally.

Wandering through Market Square I noticed a plaque embedded in the pavement and stopped to read it. At first I couldn’t find the art, even though the plaque seemed to be describing it and providing explicit directions. I kept searching high on the surrounding buildings and wondering if I would need to wait until dark to see this. Was the artwork gone and the plaque left behind?

When I started to continue on my way I noticed the lights in the pavement. Tables and chairs set up on top of the design did a good job of obscuring it. Plus, it appears that some of the lights are now missing.

Still, this is a cool installation that uses art for an historic marker. The diagram in the plaque is not directing your eyes to the artwork, but to the location in the sky where you would have seen these constellations on 2 Jun 1835. That was the date of the first publicly announced meeting of the Pittsburgh Anti–Slavery Society.

As we researched this, we realized that it was never actually meant to be public art. It really is just an extension of an historic marker, but we’re including it anyway. Call it curator’s discretion. This is an important part of our city’s history.

The Underground Railroad ran through here and businesses in and around Market Square provided refuge. There’s a write–up here about this marker and why it was installed.

The images of the North Star, Big and Little Dippers are here to represent the methods used by the slaves to navigate to freedom. North Star was also the title of the local abolitionist newspaper. The installation was part of the 2010 revitalization of Market Square.