Paint and Plaster: Restoring Harriet Tubman's Church

Paint colors submitted by the contractors for approval; the final colors will be adjusted to be as accurate as possible. NPS.

The Thompson Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church at Harriet Tubman National Historical Park is being restored to look as it did in Tubman's lifetime — specifically at her funeral in 1913. Paint analysis and plaster preservation are central, and cultural resources staff make sure the work respects the building's integrity and history.

The exterior

• Symmetry restored: a front window was moved back a few inches north to its original position.
• Roof: asphalt shingles were replaced with historically accurate cedar ones.

Finding the original colors

• Sampling: more than one hundred tiny samples were taken with a surgical scalpel from every room, cast in resin, and cut to show cross sections of every paint layer.
• Reading them: under a microscope in visible and ultraviolet light, the colors were identified; with archival research, each color scheme was dated.
• The 1904 scheme, still on the church at Tubman's funeral:

• Matching: the painters submitted colors close to the originals, which were checked against Munsell color standards; in spring 2023 the colors were to be adjusted for accuracy.

The historically accurate color on the Munsell sheet is slightly darker and more vibrant than the contractor's paint. NPS.

What's a Munsell sheet? A scientific paint sample. The Munsell color system describes colors by hue (color), value (light or dark) and chroma (saturation), giving every visible color a precise code — so it's used to match paint, fabric and more exactly.

The plaster

• 1891: the church was built with plastered walls and ceiling.
• 1904: color was added — salmon-pink walls with dark red stenciling around the ceiling. These were the interior colors at Tubman's funeral, so they guide the restoration.
• Survivors: despite decades of repainting, some original plaster survives and remains visible, much of the preserved stenciling on the east wall near the ceiling.
• A rescue: a section on the north wall was meant to stay in place, but vibrations from work on the roof made it crumble. An NPS conservator and the park's Cultural Resource Specialist removed the remaining original plaster in several large pieces, bracing it with a rigid board and tape so no fragment fell.
• Into the collection: the pieces become museum objects — photographed, cataloged and preserved as architectural elements of the church.

Removing a section of plaster: a rigid board against the wall, taped at the base, keeps every piece in place. NPS.

Vibrations from work outside began damaging the historic plaster; the pink patches with dark red stenciling date from Tubman's lifetime. NPS.

Sources

Based on "Paint and Plaster: Thompson Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church," Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.