Harvard to Relinquish Photos of Enslaved Ancestors After Five-Year Legal Battle

Harvard University has agreed to give up some of the earliest known photos of enslaved people—daguerreotypes taken in 1850 by a Harvard professor to promote racist pseudoscience. The images, showing enslaved Africans stripped naked without consent, were kept in Harvard’s archives for over a century. Descendants sued, arguing the photos were used unethically.

A legacy of exploitation and a fight for justice

The daguerreotypes were originally commissioned by Harvard professor Louis Agassiz, who used them to push false beliefs about racial hierarchy. Despite their disturbing origins, Harvard retained the images, citing their value for research and education. But Tamara Lanier, a descendant of one of the men photographed—Renty Taylor—filed a lawsuit in 2019 demanding the university return the images. She argued Harvard had no moral right to possess or profit from the photos, which were taken without consent and used in lectures and publications with no acknowledgment of the families or the trauma behind them. Her legal efforts sparked national conversations about ownership of Black bodies and the role of institutions in addressing historical harm.

Photos will go to Black-led museum in South Carolina

After five years of legal pressure and public support, Harvard agreed to relinquish the daguerreotypes in 2024. The photos will be transferred to the International African American Museum (IAAM) in Charleston, South Carolina—located in the state where Renty and Delia Taylor were enslaved. The museum is dedicated to African American history and will work closely with Tamara Lanier to ensure the images are handled with dignity.

Tonya M. Matthews, the museum’s CEO, praised Lanier’s perseverance and said this marks a powerful example of reclaiming Black history from the hands of institutions that once helped erase it.

This moment not only closes a painful chapter but begins a new one—led by descendants, with the legacy of those photographed finally in the right hands.

• News