A Civil War-era photograph that historians had long dismissed as a routine studio portrait has turned out to be a coded historical document with links to one of the most famous escapes from slavery in American history. The 1860 portrait, donated anonymously to the Smithsonian in January 2019 with only a note reading “1860 Philadelphia,” shows a couple in expensive formal attire. When Dr. Sarah Morrison examined it closely, she found a tiny quilted pattern in the studio mark—a coded signature used by James Bington, a Quaker abolitionist who secretly photographed freedom seekers in Philadelphia between 1855 and 1863.
Only 17 of Bington’s photographs are known to exist. Most were deliberately destroyed because they could have been used as evidence by slave catchers. The photograph shows William and Ellen Craft, who escaped slavery in Georgia in December 1848. Ellen disguised herself as a wealthy, ailing white gentleman traveling north for medical treatment, while her husband posed as her servant.
They traveled openly through the South by train and hotel, in plain sight of authorities. The 1860 portrait was taken 12 years after their escape and was itself an act of defiance. Under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, such photographs could be used to identify and recapture freedom seekers. The fact that the Crafts risked a formal, expensive portrait raised a central question for researchers: why take such a dangerous risk?
Using advanced imaging technology, Morrison and Harvard historian Dr. Marcus Hayes made a discovery on the fourth day of analysis. The ornate brooch Ellen wears in the photograph contains microscopic engraving around its border reading “Liberty or death. EC1 1848.
” In the center is a tiny, detailed map showing the route from Georgia to Philadelphia with coded symbols marking specific stops. The map marked a small Georgia town called Macon, near where the Crafts’ escape began. Research into 1848 census records led to a free Black seamstress named Ruth who operated a respected dress shop in Macon. A merchant’s ledger showed Ruth purchased men’s formal clothing, bandages, and medical supplies just five days before the Crafts’ escape.
Ruth had made Ellen’s disguise—multiple suits, perfecting the fit and details over two months so Ellen’s appearance would be convincing. Ellen practiced walking and sitting like a man and even learned to sign documents with her left hand while keeping her right arm in a sling. Presented in person to the researchers by a descendant named Grace, Ruth’s coded journal recorded that she helped 97 people reach freedom between 1842 and 1855. Entries about the Crafts spanned six pages and documented that their escape had been postponed twice—once because of illness and once because a notorious slave catcher named Hughes was operating along their planned route.
Archival work in Baltimore revealed that the Crafts served as couriers carrying materials for a document-forging operation that helped other freedom seekers obtain false freedom papers. Official records show three people with connections to the Macon area filed such papers in Baltimore in early 1849. A letter from slave catcher Hughes, filed in February 1849, revealed he personally encountered the couple during their escape but did not recognize them because the disguise was so effective. The photograph was also deliberately kept out of American classrooms for generations.
A Georgia school board transcript from October 1889 shows a former Confederate officer objecting to the story in textbooks on the grounds that it threatened the social order. The book was banned across most former Confederate states. Northern states such as Massachusetts followed for different reasons, based on concerns about disrespect for property laws. By 1895, the story had been removed from textbooks in 42 states.
Ruth’s descendant also provided a final piece of evidence: a silk map hidden inside the lining of Ruth’s Bible, dated 1839. It documents a network of at least 27 free Black business owners—tailors, blacksmiths, dressmakers, carpenters, shop owners, and preachers—who coordinated escapes through their legitimate commercial activities for over 15 years, using coded notations that indicated safe houses, avoided days, and payment requirements. This parallel network deliberately stayed invisible to white abolitionists, some of whom were informants or careless with sensitive information. A DNA test later connected one researcher’s own genealogy to the family.
Ruth and Ellen were first cousins; their mothers were sisters enslaved on the same plantation. Ruth’s records show Ellen went to family for help with the escape. In spring 2025, the Smithsonian opened a permanent exhibition, “Hidden Networks: The Untold Story of Southern Freedom Routes. ” The 1860 photograph holds the place of honor, displayed alongside Ruth’s journal, the silk map, and the forged freedom papers.
School districts in 38 states have begun revising curricula to include the Crafts’ escape and Ruth’s network. After nearly 170 years, the story of William and Ellen Craft, and the network that made their freedom possible, is no longer hidden from public view.