BOSTON (AP) 鈥 Harvard University will relinquish 175-year-old photographs believed to be the earliest taken of enslaved people to a South Carolina museum devoted to African American history as part of a settlement with one of the subjects’ descendants.
The photos of the subjects identified by Tamara Lanier as her great-great-great-grandfather Renty, whom she calls 鈥淧apa Renty,” and his daughter Delia will be transferred from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to the International African American Museum in South Carolina, the state where they were enslaved in 1850 when the photos were taken, a lawyer for Lanier said Wednesday.
The settlement marks the end of a 15-year battle between Lanier and the nation鈥檚 most elite university to release the 19th-century 鈥渄aguerreotypes,” a precursor to modern-day photographs. Lanier鈥檚 attorney Joshua Koskoff told The Associated Press that the resolution is an 鈥渦nprecedented鈥 victory for descendants of those enslaved in the U.S. and praised his client’s yearslong determination in pursuing justice for her ancestors.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 one of one in American history, because of the combination of unlikely features: to have a case that dates back 175 years, to win control over images dating back that long of enslaved people 鈥 that鈥檚 never happened before,” Koskoff said in a phone interview.
The AP sent an email seeking comment from Harvard.
A complex history
Lanier, who lives in Connecticut, sued the Ivy League institution in 2019 for 鈥渨rongful seizure, possession and expropriation鈥 of the images of Renty, Delia and five other enslaved individuals. The suit attacked Harvard for its 鈥渆xploitation鈥 of Renty鈥檚 image at a 2017 conference and in other uses. It said Harvard has capitalized on the photos by demanding a 鈥渉efty鈥 licensing fee to reproduce the images.
The daguerreotypes were commissioned by Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz, whose theories on racial difference were used to support slavery in the U.S. The lawsuit says Agassiz came across Renty and Delia while touring plantations in search of racially 鈥減ure鈥 slaves born in Africa.
To create the images, both Renty and Delia were posed shirtless and photographed from several angles.
鈥淭o Agassiz, Renty and Delia were nothing more than research specimens,鈥 the suit says. 鈥淭he violence of compelling them to participate in a degrading exercise designed to prove their own subhuman status would not have occurred to him, let alone mattered.鈥
In 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in Lanier鈥檚 favor and reaffirmed the merits of Lanier’s lawsuit against Harvard after a lower court judge .
The state鈥檚 highest court recognized 鈥淗arvard鈥檚 complicity in the horrific actions surrounding the creation of the daguerreotypes,鈥 saying that 鈥淗arvard鈥檚 present obligations cannot be divorced from its past abuses.鈥
A new home for Renty and Delia
In a statement Wednesday, CEO of the International African American Museum Dr. Tonya M. Matthews called Harvard’s relinquishing of the images a moment “175 years in the making.鈥
鈥淭he bravery, tenacity, and grace shown by Ms. Lanier throughout the long and arduous process of returning these critical pieces of Renty and Delia鈥檚 story to South Carolina is a model for us all,鈥 she said.
The South Carolina museum has committed to working with Lanier and including her in decisions about how the story of the images will be told.
鈥淚t’s not an improvement just to move them from one closet in a mighty institution to another. And so really, the real importance of this is to allow these images to breathe, to allow the story 鈥 the full story 鈥 to be told not by a conflicted player in the story, which Harvard was from the beginning,鈥 Koskoff said.
The attorney said 鈥渆verybody has the right to tell the story of their own families.鈥
“That鈥檚 the least, most basic right we might have,” he said. 鈥淭o be able to tell the story of her family with a museum that will allow her to tell it 鈥 I mean, you can鈥檛 do any better than that.”
In Lanier’s lawsuit, she asked for Harvard to acknowledge its complicity in slavery, listen to Lanier鈥檚 oral family history and pay an unspecified sum in damages. An undisclosed financial settlement was part of the resolution with Harvard announced Wednesday, but Koskoff said Harvard still hasn’t publicly acknowledged Lanier’s connection to them or its connection to perpetuating slavery in the U.S., Koskoff said.
鈥淭hat is just left unanswered by Harvard,鈥 he said.
He said Lanier isn’t expecting or waiting to hear from the institution, but that the settlement speaks for itself.
鈥淚n the end, the truth will find you 鈥 you can you can only hide from it for so long,” he said. “Yes, history is written by the winners. But over time, you know, those winners look like losers sometimes.鈥
