Nathan Harrison Virtual Exhibit

 

Nathan Harrison came from humble beginnings as he was born into slavery in Kentucky in the 1830s. Despite this though, Harrison would go on to gain his freedom and move to Southern California where he would become a San Diego legend. While researching virtual museum exhibits, I came across an exhibit from the San Diego History Center dedicated to telling Harrison’s unique life story. The organization created the exhibit to memorialize Harrison and explain how he was able to create a life for himself as an African American man living in a very dangerous region. The exhibit was presented by the Parker Foundation and Una Davis and Jack McGrory, with both groups being staples in the San Diego community. The Parker Foundation was formed in 1971 by Inez Grant Parker after the death of her husband Gerald T. Parker, and the organization would become a key fixture in San Diego. A 2022 news report on the Parkers for the KC Independent described the organization's contributions to San Diego as the author writes, “During the past 50 years, The Parker Foundation has granted funding requests of more than $56 million to improve the lives of people living in San Diego, California.” Una Davis and Jack McGrory are prominent figures in the city too, as McGrory previously served as San Diego’s city manager and the couple made many charitable contributions to the community. Furthermore, as part of the project, there was an excavation project on the site of Harrison’s homestead in the Southern California mountains which was headed by San Diego State University archaeologist Seth Mallios and 25 of his students during spring break. This project was a community-based, community-oriented, and community-driven undertaking at every step of the development of the exhibit. 

    

    The exhibit begins with a section titled “Discover the Time Period” which contextualizes the time and place where Harrison lived and describes some of the hardships he had to face in Southern California. The subsection 1850s talks about how despite California’s status as a “free state” there were many discriminatory laws. They even described a legal loophole that affected Harrison as they wrote, “In one legal loophole, California explicitly denied the freedom claims of enslaved African Americans if they were brought into California by gold-seeking whites…Since Nathan Harrison was brought to California as an enslaved person during the Gold Rush, this meant that he was not free.” The subsection 1860s described secessionist activities that were popular in Southern California before, during, and after the war, another hardship Harrison had to overcome. The subsection 1870s recounted a particular danger that meant Harrison constantly had to be on guard. The closest settlement to his homestead, Escondido, was a “sundown town” meaning that African Americans could not remain in the city at night for fear of being attacked by white men. In contrast to the other subsections, the subsection 1870s-1890s focuses on how Harrison was able to solidify himself on his homestead and become something of a local celebrity as many people making the trip up Palomar Mountain would stop at his home and spend time with him.

The next major section is titled “Transformative Journey” and it delves into Harrison’s relationship with his visitors. Harrison’s homestead was located on the hillside of Palomar Mountain, which was notoriously rugged, narrow, and tough to traverse. Due to the tough nature of the journey visitors would often stop along the way, with Harrison’s homestead serving as something of a checkpoint for travelers.  He’d often entertain them with stories and provide them with water, leading to his legend to grow. The museum exhibit describes his unique relationship with the travelers as it says, “Tourists traveled to Palomar Mountain to verify the tales that circulated about the famous Palomar pioneer…Visitors came bearing gifts of ‘provisions and clothing,’ which consisted of cans of sardines, a pair of jeans, and a bottle of whiskey. In exchange for these gifts, Harrison posed for photos, offered his visitors water, and regaled them with wondrous stories of the mountain—much to the delight of his mesmerized visitors.” This section also includes a video about Nathan Harrison and the difficult trek up the mountain.

Link to the Youtube video about Harrison: https://youtu.be/tV9WfxZuiVc

The third section is titled “Visit the Cabin” and this section talks about Harrison’s cabin while also giving more background about Harrison himself. Harrison’s cabin is noteworthy because closely resembled slave quarters from the south where he grew up. The museum exhibit explains this as they write, “Harrison’s cabin bore a striking resemblance to enslaved peoples’ quarters of the Antebellum South. Harrison could have easily created a much larger structure or fashioned a house with entirely different dimensions. Instead, he built his home in a form that he knew well and that others expected of him.” Harrison’s cabin reflected his background and keep a low profile even with his local popularity. This section also goes on to describe a completely separate part of Harrison’s life that he had to keep hidden from his visitors to protect himself. As the exhibit describes, “He had a second name, a second identity, and a second community that only historical archaeology could fully uncover and explain. Harrison was baptized Catholic by Rincon Indian Chief Juan Sotelo Calac. He was given the name ‘Ines,’ became fluent in the Luiseño language, married an indigenous woman, and became a full tribal member who was even allowed to dance in ritual ceremonies.” Harrison had to keep his relationship with the native community a secret because the US was actively at war with the local indigenous population and he couldn’t trust strangers either as anti-indigenous attitudes were common amongst whites.  

    The final section of the exhibit is titled “Experience the Excavation” and deals with the excavation project done by Seth Mallios and his students on the site of Harrison’s old homestead. During the excavation, the group broke up Harrison’s property into 5x5 squares which were all given their own unit identifiers. In the exhibit, there’s an interactive map where the viewer can see how the team divided up Harrison’s land and see what items were found in each plot. In addition to telling the viewer which items were found in each plot, they also give the viewer historical background knowledge on each thing and what Harrison might’ve used them for. This section also includes a video chronicling the group’s efforts during the excavation.

Link to the Youtube video about the excavation: https://youtu.be/buUrUKJmtok

This exhibit was an absolute joy to view and I think it’s incredibly important that they continue to memorialize Nathan Harrison and tell his story. The exhibit itself was very informative and honored Harrison well. The historical context that’s provided in the beginning does extremely well to set the tone for the whole exhibit and demonstrate just how remarkable Harrison’s journey and rise to local legend was. The two middle sections showed how Harrison got started on the mountain and how his jovial personality allowed him to stay safe and build a positive relationship with visitors. Then, the final section depicting the project to bring this exhibit to life was a perfect way to end the exhibit and wrap up Harrison’s story. This exhibit was very well-made and you can tell that the organizers of everything were passionate about San Diego and telling the story of how Nathan Harrison fit into the city’s history. 

Works Cited:

Brennan, Deborah Sullivan. “SDSU Students Unearth Life and Legend of Black Pioneer Nate Harrison.” Tribune, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Apr. 2017, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/north-county/sd-me-harrison-excavation-20170330-story.html. 

McEntee, Jennifer. “A Philanthropic Couple Conducted a Fundraising Fete for the Symphony's New Outdoor Venue.” San Diego Magazine, 30 Dec. 2021, https://www.sandiegomagazine.com/local-charities/a-philanthropic-couple-conducted-a-fundraising-fete-for-the-symphonys-new-outdoor-venue/article_822d0d0c-68ef-11ec-9914-1b4ced41842a.html. 

“Nathan Harrison - Born Enslaved, Died a San Diego Legend.” San Diego History Center, https://sandiegohistory.org/nathanharrison/#journey-content. 

Paxton, Heather N. “Toast to Olde Tymes – Inez Grant Parker and Gerald T. Parker.” The Independent, https://kcindependent.com/toast-to-olde-tymes-inez-grant-parker-and-gerald-t-parker/. 

“The Parkers.” The Parker Foundation, https://theparkerfoundation.org/about-us/the-parkers/.