On June 19, 2003, 5 three feet by ten feet banners with images from local Underground Railroad sites were unveiled on the front of Wegmans Supermarket in Williamsport, PA. Wegmans is built on the site of former warehouses where slaves arriving in Williamsport on trails over Bald Eagle Mountain or on the Susquehanna River were hidden until they could be transported to Daniel Hughes home on Freedom Road or other locations.
The banners and the original Flash website were part of a public art project, directed by Lynn Estomin, which highlights the history of the Underground Railroad in Lycoming County, PA. In February 2003, twelve senior art majors from Lycoming College, Art Professor Estomin, Visiting Artist Steven Marc and Local Historian Mamie Sweeting Diggs documented seven local Underground Railroad sites, shot over 2500 digital images and designed the banners.
Estomin, Marc and the students photographed the caves and cemetery on Freedom Road and the site of the former Thomas Lightfoot Inn in Williamsport; the McCarthy House in Muncy; the Pennsdale Quaker Meeting House, the "House of Many Stairs" and the John Adlum House in Pennsdale; and the Apker House in Trout Run.
Students who participated in the project are: Sarah Alexander, Amy Beaver, Melissa Britcher, Jasmine Campbell, Joe DeAngelis, Caren DelBove, Siobhan Horton, Shakhanda Jimenez, Shelly Klein, Matthew Kondrath, Matthew Nye, and Matthew Ulrich.
The Underground Railroad banners function as “moveable billboards" and were displayed on local buildings over the following year. Wegmans was the first stop on the banner tour that circulated to public schools in the Williamsport Area School District, the James V. Brown Public Library, the YWCA, and Lycoming County Historical Society Museum. Then the banners were exhibited for a year at the Freedom Center in Cincinnati, OH, traveled to Miami University in Oxford, OH, which served as a training base for Civil Rights Movement Freedom Riders. The banners are currently on permanent display at the Peter Herdic Transportation Museum in Williamsport, PA.
Lynn Estomin and Lycoming College Alum Tom Lee designed the original website as a resource for Williamsport Area School District teachers when the banners toured the area public schools during the 2003-2004 school year.
The website featured streaming audio of oral historian Mamie Sweeting Diggs telling stories that were passed down in her family from her great grandfather, Daniel Hughes. Hughes was a conductor on the Underground Railroad who brought escaped slaves from Baltimore and hid them in the caves on his property on Freedom Road. The site also featured original animation, photographs and history about Underground Railroad sites in Lycoming County and music by Kim and Reggie Harris, a resources section and a timeline of important events in the history of the Underground Railroad.