A first-ever major exhibition of the Harriet Hayden albums displays original photographs of notable Black Bostonian

Harriet and Lewis Hayden self-emancipated from slavery in 1844, settling in Beacon Hill by 1849. Their home became a gathering place for abolitionists and a stop on the Underground Railroad, with freedom seekers moving from the South to the North passing through the Hayden home.

Harriet's labor in hosting, sheltering, clothing, and feeding whole families was essential in the abolitionist movement in Boston. She also hosted abolitionist leaders in her home. Her activism continued long after the abolition of slavery, including the fight for women's suffrage.

The narrative core of the exhibition centers on two photograph albums once owned by anti-slavery activist Harriet Bell Hayden. Together, the albums contain 87 cartes-de-visite, portraying many of Boston’s most prominent Black abolitionist figures and those on the national scale as well – including suffragist Virginia Hewlett Douglass, lawyer Robert Morris, educator Elizabeth N. “Lizzie” Smith, and Dr. John V. DeGrasse – and include rare examples by makers like the Black landscape painter Edward Mitchell Bannister.

The exhibition is on view through June 22. More information is available at BostonAthenaeum.org/Hayden