[Leica] the slave daguerrotypes of agassiz and JT Zealy

[scleroplex at gmail.com (scleroplex)]

this flap has earned a full editorial from the Boston Globe :-

EDITORIAL
Harvard should openly discuss Louis Agassiz and his racial attitudes

    JULY 05, 2012

Harvard University could have avoided a recent dispute with a Swiss
activist group hoping to exhibit a series of racially degrading photographs
commissioned by one of Harvard?s most beloved professors in the 19th
century by simply allowing the group to use the images.

According to Pamela Gerardi, director of external relations at Harvard?s
Peabody Museum, the university denied the request because the group wished
to blow up the sensitive images and print them on a large banner. Gerardi
worried that that format might further exploit the photographs? subjects ?
American slaves and Brazilian natives who had been stripped naked and
displayed like scientific specimens to prove their supposed biological
deficiencies. While that sensitivity is understandable, it wasn?t strong
enough grounds to deny the request, especially not without further
clarification from the group. While enlarging the photographs could have
been distasteful, it could also have been powerful way of exploring the
images? sinister history.

Nonetheless, the incident has highlighted the fact that Harvard can do a
better job grappling with the legacy of Louis Agassiz, the professor who
commissioned the photographs. According to Harvard?s website, ?*Few people
have left a more indelible imprint on Harvard than Louis Agassiz.*? The
naturalist was one of the ?founding fathers? of the modern American
scientific tradition, while his efforts to elevate Harvard, through
fundraising and the founding of his Museum of Comparative Zoology, helped
make the institution into the powerhouse it is today.

But Agassiz?s theories also helped legitimize deep-seated racism in the
United States and beyond, by lending credence to the now-discredited idea
that there is a scientific basis for treating people of distinct races
differently. Through his research, Agassiz attempted to prove that people
of different races actually came from different species, and that
lighter-skinned humans were biologically superior than those with darker
skin.

Harvard doesn?t hide this history: The university has provided extensive
access to the body of work Agassiz left behind in 1873. But the university
doesn?t dwell on it, either. In one rare instance, the university notes on
its website that ?Agassiz took a very dim view of racial mixing.? Well,
that?s one way to put it.

Instead of assessing Agassiz?s legacy itself, the university has left the
task to scholars.

*[image: Quote Icon]*

Instead of assessing Agassiz?s legacy itself, the university has left the
task to scholars such as Louis Menand in ?The Metaphysical Club? and
Stephen Jay Gould in ?The Mismeasure of Man.? Those works should be
applauded, but don?t excuse Harvard from the responsibility to present a
fully rounded view of its great patron. An official study of Agassiz?s work
on racial differences, perhaps accompanied by a public symposium, would be
useful. So too would an effort to approve more requests to exhibit
Agassiz?s more troubling works ? unless the requests are truly malicious.
Harvard should use Louis Agassiz?s career as a vehicle for teaching the
importance of scientific exploration ? but also how the prejudices of the
day can infect the work of even the greatest thinkers.



On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 7:16 PM, scleroplex <scleroplex at gmail.com> wrote:

> indeed!
>
> i think that's why the swiss did not expect to be told they couldn't put
> up even a portrait of him,
> let alone the slave photos,
> as their tone of voice was not deferential enough
>
> :-))
> bharani
>
>
> Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2012 16:18:25 +0000
> From: "B. D. Colen" <bd at bdcolenphoto.com>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] the slave daguerrotypes of agassiz and JT Zealy
> To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>
> Message-ID:
>
>  <9722044-1340813906-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1452887758- 
> at b17.c16.bise6.blackberry
> >
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
>
> One fact missing from this - Agassiz WAS a Harvard professor; he's been
> dead for more than a century. ;-)
> Typed with big fingers on tiny keys
>