This 8 by 10-inch (20.25 by 21.25 cm) photograph shows the "Freedom Stairway," the one hundred steps leading from the Ohio River to the John Rankin House in Ripley, a station on the Underground Railroad. John Rankin (1793-1886) was a Presbyterian minister and educator who devoted much of his life to the antislavery movement. The house has several secret rooms in which slaves were hidden. A light was placed in the window of the house to indicate that it was safe for slaves to approach. The John Rankin House is now a museum, part of the Ohio Historical Society's state-wide network of historic sites.

Rankin is credited with helping two thousand slaves escape to freedom. The character of Eliza in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was reportedly inspired by a story of a woman who crossed the partially-frozen Ohio River with a baby in her arms, making it safely to Rankin's house.