Harvard University ends long battle over slave photos, sending them to South Carolina museum
Harvard University has reached a settlement with a woman to end a long legal battle over slave photos.
Tamara Lanier of Norwich, Connecticut claims she's a descendant of two of the slaves shown in the widely published images owned by Harvard. The 175-year-old portraits are believed to be some of the earliest known photographs of American slaves.
The daguerreotypes taken in 1850 show a man named Renty, his daughter Delia and five other slaves in South Carolina. Harvard biology professor Louis Agassi commissioned the photos at the time. His theories on racial differences were used to support slavery in America.
The photos were stored away for years, until they were found in Harvard's Peabody Museum in 1976. Lanier and her attorneys said Harvard "made no effort to locate the subjects' descendants and instead began to display and license the images for profit."
Lanier says she is Renty's great-great-great granddaughter. She took Harvard to court in 2019 to get ownership of the photos, saying the university exploited them for money, but she lost. The judges said the images were the property of the photographer who took them. However, Massachusetts' highest court ruled in 2022 that Lanier could sue Harvard for emotional distress.
Harvard slave photos to South Carolina museum
That battle ended this week with an agreement that the photos will be moved to the International African American Museum, a Black history museum in Charleston, South Carolina, where Lanier's attorneys say they will be "publicly displayed."
"Harvard played a role in the darkest chapter in American history. This is a small step in the right direction towards fully acknowledging that history and working to rectify it," Lanier said in a statement Wednesday.
Her attorney Ben Crump said Lanier and Harvard also reached a "confidential monetary settlement" as part of the agreement.
Harvard response to slave photos settlement
"Harvard University has long been eager to place the Zealy Daguerreotypes with another museum or other public institution to put them in the appropriate context and increase access to them for all Americans. Now that this lawsuit has been resolved, Harvard can move forward towards that goal," Harvard spokesman James Chisholm said 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 was first reported by the New York Times.
