Overview

• Fifteen daguerreotypes commissioned in 1850 by Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz will move from the Peabody Museum to the International African American MuseumCharleston.
• The settlement with Tamara Lanier, who claims descent from subjects Renty Taylor and his daughter Delia, includes undisclosed financial terms.
• In 2022 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court revived Lanier’s case, allowing her to pursue emotional distress claims after an earlier dismissal.
• Harvard has agreed to work with Lanier on how the images are displayed but has not publicly acknowledged her ancestral link or its own historic ties to slavery.
• The Charleston museum will present the daguerreotypes with contextual interpretation focused on the humanity and stories of the individuals depicted.