Court Rules Descendant of Slaves Depicted in Photos Can Sue Harvard
A court has ruled that Harvard University can be sued over a series of photographs that depict enslaved people by a woman who is a descendent of the subjects.
Judge Rules Images of Enslaved Are Property of Harvard, Not Descendant
A Massachusetts judge has dismissed a woman's lawsuit claiming that she is the rightful owner of the images of an enslaved father and daughter and not Harvard, the New York Times reports. The judge cites common law that the content of an image cannot be used to claim ownership of that image, regardless of the subject.
Who Should Own Photos of Enslaved People?
In 1976 while rummaging through an attic of Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in search of old museum publications, editorial assistant Lorna Condon opened a drawer in a wooden cabinet. Inside, she found a number of flat leather cases which contained a series of daguerreotypes of partially and fully nude Black people.