Harvard agrees to transfer photos of enslaved people to black history museum
Summary
Harvard University has agreed to transfer a set of early photos of enslaved people to the International African American Museum in South Carolina. This follows a legal dispute with Tamara Lanier, who claims she is a descendant of two of the people in the photos. The photos were taken in 1850 and are among some of the earliest images of enslaved individuals.Key Facts
- Harvard will transfer historic photos of enslaved people to a museum in South Carolina.
- The photos are called daguerreotypes, an early kind of photograph.
- They were taken in 1850, 15 years before slavery was abolished in the US.
- Tamara Lanier, from Connecticut, claims descent from two people in the photos.
- The images were rediscovered at Harvard's Peabody Museum in 1976.
- Harvard professor Louis Agassiz commissioned these photos for now-discredited research.
- A court ruling in 2022 dismissed Lanier's claim to ownership but allowed her to seek emotional distress damages.
- The museum in South Carolina plans to display the photos and provide educational context.
Read the Full Article
This is a fact-based summary from The Actual News. Click below to read the complete story directly from the original source.