By Sudhir Choudhary | March 12, 2026
Photographs of an enslaved man known as Renty and his daughter Delia—taken in 1850 and long held by Harvard University—have been transferred to a new institutional home, bringing an end to a years-long legal and ethical dispute over ownership and stewardship of the images.
The photographs, widely known as the “Renty” daguerreotypes, were originally commissioned by Harvard scientist Louis Agassiz, a 19th-century naturalist who sought visual evidence for discredited racial theories. The images were created in South Carolina in 1850 and are considered among the earliest known photographs of enslaved people in the United States.
Historic Images Linked to Early Scientific Racism
Renty and Delia were photographed as part of Agassiz’s research into polygenism, a now-discredited theory that claimed different races had separate origins. Historians say the images were intended to support racist pseudoscience and were taken without the consent of those depicted.
For more than a century, the photographs remained in Harvard’s archives and were later housed at the university’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The images gained national attention after Tamara Lanier, a Connecticut resident who says she is a descendant of Renty, filed a lawsuit against Harvard in 2019. Lanier argued that the university should return the photographs to her family, asserting that the images were taken under coercive conditions during slavery.
Court Battles and Ethical Debate
The legal battle moved through Massachusetts courts for several years. In 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court allowed Lanier’s emotional distress claims against Harvard to proceed while rejecting parts of her ownership claim. The decision intensified debate over whether institutions should relinquish historical artifacts connected to slavery.
In 2024, Harvard and Lanier reached a settlement. As part of the agreement, the daguerreotypes were transferred from Harvard to the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, where they are expected to be preserved and interpreted within the broader historical context of slavery in the United States.
Officials associated with the museum stated that the photographs will be cared for in a way that centers the lives and humanity of the people depicted, rather than the pseudoscientific aims for which they were originally produced.
A New Institutional Home
The International African American Museum, which opened in Charleston in 2023 near the historic Gadsden’s Wharf—an entry point for enslaved Africans—has indicated the daguerreotypes will be displayed within exhibitions examining slavery, science, and the historical misuse of photography.
Museum officials have described the transfer as providing a “final resting place” for the images, allowing them to be interpreted within a historical narrative shaped by African American history rather than the legacy of scientific racism.
While the settlement concluded the legal dispute between Lanier and Harvard, the case has prompted broader discussions among museums and universities about the ethical stewardship of materials connected to slavery and colonial history.
Sources: Associated Press; Reuters; The New York Times; Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court records; International African American Museum statements.
Tags: Slavery History, Harvard University, Renty Daguerreotypes, Tamara Lanier, African American History, Museum Ethics
News by The Vagabond News.
