Tubman's signature penciled in cursive inside the book's front cover adds even more meaning, he said.
“We tend to forget how few people could read,” Bunch said. “It must have been an amazing moment that almost encapsulated freedom when she could sign her name.”
The items were passed down through Tubman's family to a grand niece named Mariline Wilkins. Wilkins left them to Blockson, who also has family ties to Tubman.
Blockson, 76, is a prominent collector of Black history. The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University in Philadelphia started with a donation of 20,000 items in 1984 and has grown to more than 200,000 items including slave narratives, art and rare texts.
Of all the items Blockson has collected, though, the Tubman items are the pinnacle, he said.
“It touches the inner chambers of my soul,” he said.
Blockson said he prayed and kept the items under his bed for months before deciding to send them to the Smithsonian.
“On the mall here, people will be coming from all over the world. It belongs here,” he said. “This donation will lead others to donate; this is what I'm hoping.”
