CAMBRIDGE – The third tour for the Visit Dorchester cell phone guide is now available, and it includes the powerful, new Harriet Tubman mural in downtown Cambridge. The latest release is a driving tour that takes travelers throughout Dorchester County to view outdoor, public art murals by nationally acclaimed artist Michael Rosato.

The Chesapeake Mural Trail is part of the suite of free audio tours that the Heart of Chesapeake Country Heritage Area created to showcase the unique history and culture of Dorchester County during its 350th anniversary. On the mural trail, Mr. Rosato describes the inspiration behind seven of his murals in Cambridge, Vienna and East New Market.

“I hope you learn a little, brief history – what incredible, marvelous, incredible life that’s offered here on the Eastern Shore and especially in Dorchester County,” Mr. Rosato says on the guide. “The Mural Trail is rich in telling that story. The murals were painted to represent the people and the places here in Dorchester County that you are going to interact with along this route.”

Mr. Rosato, who lives in Dorchester County, is a captivating storyteller. He shares highlights from Dorchester’s culture and history and provides details about the artistic techniques he used. He describes the passages from James Michener’s Chesapeake that inspired several of the murals on the guide.

Mr. Rosato’s latest mural is of Harriett Tubman and is located on the Harriet Tubman Museum at 424 Race St., Cambridge.
“When you look at this mural, I wanted it to evoke a number of the words that would describe Harriet Tubman: power, strength, love, family,” Mr. Rosato says on the guide. “There is so much to learn about Harriet Tubman. This is an incredible American icon, not just a woman, an African-American woman, but it contains all the American spirit.”

• Downtown Cambridge Tour
The Downtown Cambridge Guide is a walking tour that gives visitors historical details about events such as the devastating fires that destroyed so many buildings in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The narrators also point out significant architectural and design details about the buildings that people might not notice on their own.

One of the most interesting and unique aspects of the tours are the authentic, personal experiences that the local narrators share when they describe their connections to the sites. For instance, a 100-year-old great-grandmother who grew up down the street from the former Phillips Hardware store talks about being captivated by the toy display there at Christmas.

• Pine Street Tour
The Pine Street Tour focuses on African-American history and heritage in Cambridge. Narrators on this walking tour also share personal experiences. The Long Wharf narrator provides historical background, and then he describes how he has traced his family history and that his ancestors were unloaded from slave ships at this spot. His poignant reflection includes how he tries to see the landscape through their eyes and their perspective.

The tour proceeds up historic High Street to Pine Street, where narrators share firsthand memories of the neighborhood’s heyday, when the area had so much energy it was nicknamed “Little New York.” Travelers will hear compelling descriptions of the turbulent 1960s when Pine Street thrust Cambridge before a worldwide audience, and it emerged as one of the most important battlegrounds in the Civil Rights movement.

Download the Tours for Free
The Chesapeake Mural Trail has eight stops. The Downtown Cambridge Tour includes 13 stops, and the Pine Street Tour includes nine stops. They are all available for free on the same Visit Dorchester cell phone app, which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for android devices and the App Store for iPhones. (Search for “Visit Dorchester.”)

Download the free Visit Dorchester app from the:
Google Play Store, http://bit.ly/visitdorchester-android-app
Apple App Store, http://bit.ly/visitdorchester-iphone-app
Learn more about the app here: https://visitdorchester.org/see-and-do/audio-tours/