Harvard to Relinquish Photos of Enslaved People, Ending Legal Battle
Harvard University is set to donate fifteen daguerreotypes of enslaved people to the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, settling a lawsuit brought by a descendant of two of the people portrayed in the photos. The images, held by the school’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, were commissioned in the mid-nineteenth century by Swiss-born zoologist Louis Agassiz, a Harvard professor and a proponent of the racist theory of polygenesis, which holds that the genetic origins of Black people differ from those of white people.
Tamara Lanier, whose enslaved ancestor Renty and his daughter Delia appeared in two of the daguerreotypes, sued Harvard in 2019 for wrongful possession and expropriation, claiming that the university was profiting from the photos. The case was dismissed in 2021, with the presiding judge ruling that the images had not been the property of Lanier’s forebears and thus did not rightfully belong to her. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld that ruling a year later but also ruled that Lanier could sue over the emotional distress caused by Harvard’s promotional use of the photos. In the process, Lanier made contact with Agassiz’s descendants, who contacted the university on her behalf.
Harvard, which had argued that it had a property interest in the images, did not disclose the terms of the suit’s settlement beyond the handoff of the photos to the African American Museum. “Harvard has been committed to stewarding the daguerreotypes in a responsible manner and finding an institutional home for them where their historical significance is appreciated,” said university spokesperson James Chisholm in a statement. “While we are grateful to Ms. Lanier for sparking important conversations about these images, her claim to ownership of the daguerreotypes created a complex situation, especially because Harvard has not been able to confirm that Ms. Lanier is related to the individuals in the daguerreotypes.”
The settlement arrives as Harvard is embroiled in a battle with the administration of President Donald Trump, which has frozen more than $2 billion in federal aid that was to have supported research at the school; attempted to halt Harvard’s enrollment of international students; and threatened to revoke the university’s tax-exempt status.
Benjamin Crump, one of the attorneys representing Lanier, at a May 28 press conference praised the school for parting with the images. “It is so critically important, when we think about this epidemic of white supremacy that has resurfaced and reared its ugly head, that we know there are champions for equal justice that stand up to the enemies of equality,” said Crump. “There’s never a wrong time to do the right thing.”
