Harvard University has agreed to relinquish ownership of historic photographs of an enslaved man and his daughter, taken in 1850 without their consent for a racist study, as part of a legal settlement with one of their descendants.
The resolution, announced Wednesday, ends a six-year legal battle led by Tamara Lanier, who accused Harvard of wrongfully claiming ownership of the images of her ancestors—Renty Taylor and his daughter Delia. The pair were enslaved on a South Carolina plantation and were forcibly photographed by Harvard professor Louis Agassiz as part of an effort to promote white supremacist theories of racial inferiority.
Although the settlement does not award the photographs directly to Lanier, the images—alongside those of five other enslaved individuals—will be transferred to the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.
“Harvard played a role in the darkest chapter in American history,” Lanier said in a statement. “This is a small step in the right direction towards fully acknowledging that history and working to rectify it.”
Harvard, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said in a statement that it had long intended to place the photographs with a public institution to provide greater context and access. “This settlement now allows us to move forward towards that goal,” the university said.
The legal dispute began in 2019 when Lanier sued Harvard after discovering the images were being stored at the university’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. She alleged emotional distress and negligence, citing the use of her ancestor Renty’s image on a book cover without consultation.
A lower court initially dismissed her lawsuit, but in 2022, Massachusetts’ highest court revived it, ruling that Lanier had plausibly demonstrated that Harvard had acted negligently and disregarded her familial claims.
Writing for the court, Justice Scott Kafker criticised Harvard’s treatment of Lanier’s ancestral link as “cavalier,” and condemned the university’s failure to engage with her inquiries. He described the original creation of the photographs as “horrific,” and said the university held ethical responsibilities to the descendants of those coerced into having their images taken.
The settlement comes at a time when Harvard is simultaneously engaged in a legal fight with President Donald Trump’s administration over efforts to cut grant funding and restrict its capacity to enrol foreign students.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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