Latest news with #Delia
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Harvard agrees to transfer photos of enslaved people to black history museum
Harvard University has agreed to hand over a set of historic photos believed to be among the earliest depicting enslaved people in the United States. The agreement ends a long legal battle between the institution and Tamara Lanier, an author from Connecticut who argues she is a descendant of two people shown in the photos. The images, taken in 1850, will be transferred to the International African American Museum in South Carolina, where the people shown in the photos were enslaved. Harvard said it had always hoped the photos would be given to another museum. Ms Lanier said she was "ecstatic" with the result. The images are daguerreotypes, a very early form of modern-day photographs and were taken 15 years before the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolished slavery. The photos were rediscovered in storage at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in 1976. The 15 images feature people identified by the Peabody Museum as Alfred, Delia, Drana, Fassena, Jack, Jem, and Renty. According to Ms Lanier, the settlement would mean the transfer of all the images not just the ones about Renty and Delia. The photos were commissioned by Harvard professor and zoologist Louis Agassizm as part of discredited research to prove the superiority of white people. He espoused polygenism, a now debunked belief that human races evolved separately. The case formed part of public debate around how America's universities should respond to their historic links to slavery. In 2016, Harvard Law School agreed to change a shield that was based on the crest of an 18th Century slaveholder. Harvard did not comment on the details of the settlement but a university spokesperson said it "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." The spokesperson added that Ms Lanier's "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." Ms Lanier sued Harvard in 2019, arguing the images were taken without consent and accusing the university of profiting from them through large licensing fees. In 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld an earlier ruling that dismissed Ms Lanier's claim to ownership. She was, however, allowed to claim damages for emotional distress. It ruled Harvard had "complicity" in the "horrific actions" surrounding the creation of the images. "Harvard's present obligations cannot be divorced from its past abuses," it added. Ms Lanier told the BBC, she was "ecstatic" about the settlement. "I have always known first of all that I could never care for the daguerreotypes at the level they would require," she said. "There are so many ties that bind Renty and Delia and the other enslaved people to that particular part of South Carolina that to repatriate them there would be like a homecoming ceremony." The South Carolina museum helped Ms Lanier with her genealogy claims but was not involved in the legal battle. Its president said they intend to hold and display the images "in context with truth and empathy." "These are not gentle images and the story behind how they came to be is even more difficult to hear," Tonya Matthews told the BBC. "So to be in a space that has already created room for conversations about the inhumanity of slavery and enslavement and how far those implications echo even to today is what we do and it's our mission." Harvard sued over 'slave ancestor' photos The awkward questions about slavery from US tourists The hidden links between slavery and Wall Street
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Harvard agrees to relinquish photos of enslaved people to descendant in Norwich
NORWICH, Conn. (WTNH) — A Norwich woman is claiming victory Thursday night after Harvard agrees to relinquish possession of early photographs of slaves. Tamara Lanier says Renty, a slave in South Carolina, was her great, great, great, grandfather who taught himself how to read. Harvard agrees to relinquish early photos of enslaved people, ending a legal battle In 1850, he and his daughter Delia were the subject of daguerreotypes, an early type of photograph. 'The reason the daguerreotypes were created in the first place was to prove white supremacy,' Lanier said. She said the nude photos were commissioned by Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz. 'As a mother of two daughters I can only imagine the trauma associated with such an experience,' Lanier said. In 2019, she filed a lawsuit against Harvard to try to get the 175 year old photographs released to her family. 'Delia during the taking of the daguerreotypes actually cried,' said Lanier. The lawsuit claims Agassiz announced to the men gathered in the Charleston Literary Club, 'The brain of a negro is that of the imperfect brain of a seven-month's infant in the womb of a White.' 'They gave justification for black inferiority and slavery,' Lanier explained. In what she calls a landmark settlement, Harvard has agreed to relinquish the daguerreotypes from its Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to the International African American Museum in South Carolina. The university released this statement: '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.' It went on to say: 'While we are grateful to Ms. Lanier for sparking important conversations about these images… Harvard has not been able to confirm that Ms. Lanier is related to the individuals in the daguerreotypes.' 'What I shared with them were official government records, official probate records,' Lanier said. She said U.S. Census information proves her heritage. For those who do not know the story of Renty and Delia it is all laid out in a book Lanier authored entitled 'From These Roots' which also chronicles Lanier's fight from start to finish. 'The legacy will continue through him,' Lanier said while she was holding her grandson Elliott during the News8 interview. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
NBC News
3 days ago
- General
- NBC News
Harvard to give 175-year-old photos of enslaved people to South Carolina museum
Harvard University will relinquish 175-year-old photographs of Renty Taylor and his daughter Delia. The photos were believed to be the earliest taken of enslaved people and will be given to a South Carolina museum devoted to African American history as part of a settlement with one of the 29, 2025
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- General
- Boston Globe
Judge orders Harvard to turn over images of enslaved father and daughter, ending descendant's lawsuit
The five images of Taylor and his daughter, Delia, are scheduled to be transferred to South Carolina, the state where they were taken in the winter of 1850, for permanent exhibit at the International African American Museum, according to Lanier and her lawyers. A press conference is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday. . They will be displayed as part of the museum's mission to tell 'the unvarnished stories of the African-American experience,' Lanier's attorneys said in a statement. Advertisement The photos of Taylor, Delia, and five other enslaved people, were first commissioned by Harvard professor Louis Agassiz to support white supremacist theories that African Americans were an inferior race. Taylor was stripped nude and photographed from every angle. Delia was naked from the waist up. Harvard officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Globe. The images were long forgotten until they were rediscovered in the Peabody Museum in 1976, where they have remained. Advertisement In its 2022 ruling, the state's high court found that the Ivy League university engaged in 'extreme and outrageous' conduct when it refused to consider Tamara Lanier's claim she was emotionally damaged by the public display of her ancestors, the ruling said. The SJC decision came on the heels of Lanier argued that Harvard had continued to enrich itself off of the daguerreotypes of her ancestors by using the images for advertising and commercial purposes. Tonya Alanez can be reached at
Hamilton Spectator
3 days ago
- General
- Hamilton Spectator
After a 15-year battle, Harvard agrees in settlement to relinquish early photos of slaves
BOSTON (AP) — 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 'Papa 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's most elite university to release the 19th-century 'daguerreotypes,' a precursor to modern-day photographs. Lanier's attorney Joshua Koskoff told The Associated Press that the resolution is an 'unprecedented' victory for descendants of those enslaved in the U.S. and praised his client's yearslong determination in pursuing justice for her ancestors. 'I think it's 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 — that's 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 'wrongful seizure, possession and expropriation' of the images of Renty, Delia and five other enslaved individuals. The suit attacked Harvard for its 'exploitation' of Renty's image at a 2017 conference and in other uses. It said Harvard has capitalized on the photos by demanding a 'hefty' 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 'pure' slaves born in Africa. To create the images, both Renty and Delia were posed shirtless and photographed from several angles. 'To Agassiz, Renty and Delia were nothing more than research specimens,' the suit says. 'The 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.' In 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in Lanier's favor and reaffirmed the merits of Lanier's lawsuit against Harvard after a lower court judge ruled she had no legal claim to the images . The state's highest court recognized 'Harvard's complicity in the horrific actions surrounding the creation of the daguerreotypes,' saying that 'Harvard's present obligations cannot be divorced from its past abuses.' 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.' 'The bravery, tenacity, and grace shown by Ms. Lanier throughout the long and arduous process of returning these critical pieces of Renty and Delia's story to South Carolina is a model for us all,' 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. 'It'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 — the full story — to be told not by a conflicted player in the story, which Harvard was from the beginning,' Koskoff said. The attorney said 'everybody has the right to tell the story of their own families.' 'That's the least, most basic right we might have,' he said. 'To be able to tell the story of her family with a museum that will allow her to tell it — I mean, you can't do any better than that.' In Lanier's lawsuit, she asked for Harvard to acknowledge its complicity in slavery, listen to Lanier's 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. 'That is just left unanswered by Harvard,' he said. He said Lanier isn't expecting or waiting to hear from the institution, but that the settlement speaks for itself. 'In the end, the truth will find you — 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.'
