{"id":1826926,"date":"2026-03-13T20:41:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1826926"},"modified":"2026-03-13T20:41:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:41:17","slug":"international-african-american-museum-acquires-1850-daguerreotypes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1826926","title":{"rendered":"International African American Museum Acquires ‘1850 Daguerreotypes’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tThe International African American Museum (IAAM) in Charleston, South Carolina, has officially acquired a set of 15 daguerreotypes, dating to 1850, that scholars believe to be the earliest known photographs taken of enslaved Americans.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe seven enslaved people photographed for the series are identified as Alfred, Delia, Drana, Fassena, Jack, Jem, and Renty; Renty and Delia were father and daughter, respectively, as were Jack and Drana. \u201cThe 1850 Daguerreotypes,\u201d as the IAAM is now calling the collection, were taken by J. T. Zealy in South Carolina, where the sitters had been enslaved, more than 175 years ago, and just over a decade after the invention of the daguerreotype. The images show each subject from the waist up, shirtless, and from frontal and profile view.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey were commissioned by Louis Agassiz, a 19th-century natural historian and a professor at Harvard University, which owned the photographs until recently, to advance racist ideology about Black people. The images were rediscovered in Harvard\u2019s holdings in 1976.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe IAAM hosted a reception to welcome the photographs to their new home on Wednesday, according to a report in the New York Times<\/em>. In a release, the IAAM characterized its planned care for the photographs that would reframe them \u201cfrom instruments of pseudoscience into portraits honoring the lives\u201d of the seven enslaved people.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement, IAAM president and CEO Tonya M. Matthew said, \u201cIAAM is honored to take over stewardship of these images because preserving the stories of African American history and reckoning with the stories of the founding of our nation is not only our mission, but a call to action for all of us. The full interpretation of these images will be transformational, moving the narrative from one of dehumanizing intent to one of the intersections of trauma, resilience, self-determination, and authentic, empathetic memory.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA six-year legal battle between Harvard and Tamara Lanier, whose independent genealogy research has shown her to be a descendant of Renty and Delia. Lanier filed the lawsuit in Massachusetts in 2019, claiming that as the descendant they were her rightful property.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe suit, according to a Times<\/em> report from when it was filed, called the images \u201cspoils of theft,\u201d arguing that as enslaved people the photograph\u2019s sitters were not able to give consent.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is unprecedented in terms of legal theory and reclaiming property that was wrongfully taken,\u201d Benjamin Crump, the high-profile civil rights attorney who was part of Lanier\u2019s legal team, told the Times <\/em>in 2019. \u201cRenty\u2019s descendants may be the first descendants of slave ancestors to be able to get their property rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ultimately ruled against Lanier\u2019s ownership claims, but Harvard ultimately reached a settlement to hand over the images to another institution, with the IAAM being chosen as the recipient. The transfer officially occurred in late 2025. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA Harvard spokesperson told the Times<\/em> that it had also made a financial contribution to the IAAM \u201cto honor their legacies and humanity in ways that contribute to the deeper perspective and understanding of our nation\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The International African American Museum stands on Gadsden\u2019s Wharf, once a major entry point for enslaved people. <\/span>Courtesy International African American Museum<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe IAAM, which opened in 2023 after more than two decades of planning, is situated on Gadsden\u2019s Wharf, which was \u201cthe entry point for over 40\u00a0percent\u00a0of captive Africans brought to North America,\u201d according to the museum.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is a moment when we return these formerly enslaved men and women to the community and to the history from which they were so wrongfully extracted\u2026a final fitting resting place; a place that celebrates their legacy and restores their humanity,\u201d Lanier said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe IAAM also received 15 reproductions of the daguerreotypes that were produced in 2022. (Because daguerreotypes are unique and produce no negatives, they are too fragile to display and are kept \u201cunder strict conservation standards,\u201d per a release.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe museum plans to put the reproductions on view this coming October, \u201cutilizing\u00a0a trauma-informed framework for the collection, prioritizing people-first language and\u00a0centering on\u00a0the humanity of those depicted over the pseudoscientific project that originally produced the images,\u201d per a release.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement, Malika N. Pryor, IAAM\u2019s chief learning and engagement officer, said, \u201cIt is our greatest honor to feature Alfred, Delia, Drana,\u00a0Fassena, Jack, Jim, and Renty in a new exhibit\u00a0that will\u00a0tell their stories. It is more than a homecoming; it is a homegoing, where our ancestors finally get to be properly laid to rest and cared for as they always should have and deserved to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IAAM-Exterior2.jpg?w=1024″] The International African American Museum (IAAM) in Charleston, South Carolina, has officially acquired a set of 15 daguerreotypes, dating to 1850, that scholars believe to be the earliest known photographs taken of enslaved Americans. The seven enslaved people photographed for the series are identified as Alfred, Delia, Drana, Fassena, Jack, Jem, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1826926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1826926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1826926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1826926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1826926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}