Harvard agrees to transfer photos of the enslaved people to the black museum of history

Harvard University agreed to take a set of historical photos that are believed to be one of the earliest reflecting enslaved people in the US.

The agreement ends with a long legal battle between the institution and Tamara Lanier, the author of the Connecticut, who claims that she is a descendant of two people shown in the photos.

The images made in 1850 will be transferred to the International African Museum in South Carolina, where people shown in the photos were enslaved.

Harvard said he always hoped that photos would be handed over to another museum. Ms. Lanier said that as a result of “delight”.

Images are Dagerootypes, a very early form of modern photographs and were made 15 years before the 13th amendments to the US Constitution abolished slavery.

The photos were again opened in the Harvard Museum of Archeology and Ethnology Harvard in 1976.

The 15 pictures are presented by people identified by the PEABODY Museum as Alfred, Delia, Dron, Fassen, Jack, Jem and Rent. According to Ms. Lanier, the settlement will mean the transfer of all images not only to those near Renty and Delia.

The photos were ordered by Professor Harvard and Zoologist Louis Agasis as part of discredited research to prove the preference for white people. He maintained polygenism, now a decayed opinion that human race developed separately.

The case has been part of public discussions on how America’s universities should respond to their historical relations. In 2016, the Harvard Law School agreed to change the shield based on the slave of the 18th century.

Harvard does not comment on the details of the settlement, but the university’s press said that “it has long been seeking to accommodate daguratypes with another museum or other state institution to put them in the appropriate context and increase access to them for all Americans.”

The press secretary added that “Ms. Lanier’s claims for the ownership of Dagerathypes created a difficult situation, especially since Harvard failed to confirm that Ms Lanje was connected with people in Dagerootypes.”

Mistress Lanier sued Harvard in 2019When arguing with the pictures, they were made without consent and accusing them of their university at the expense of great licensing payments.

In 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Court supported the preliminary ruling, which rejected Ms Lanje’s demand for ownership. However, she was allowed to demand losses for emotional suffering. He directed Harvard, who had “complicity” in “horrific actions” related to creating images.

“Harvard’s current commitments cannot be divorced from past abuses,” it added.

Ms. Lanier told the BBC that she was “delighted” about the settlement. “I always knew that I could never care about the daguerotypes at the level they needed,” she said.

“There are so many ties that associate RNTY and Delia, and other enslaved people with this particular part of South Carolina, which would be similar to the return ceremony for returning home.”

The South Carolina Museum helped Ms Lanier with her genealogical requirements, but did not participate in the legal battle. His president said they intended to hold and show images “in context with truth and empathy.”

“These are not gentle images and the story that they were even harder to hear,” said Tonya Matthew BBC.

“So as to be in a space that has already created a place to talk about the inhumanity and enslavement and how these consequences are repeating even today what we do and this is our mission.”