Agassiz’s photograph broke convention that portraits served the wealthy

Evidence

This image was taken in 1850 when Renty was a slave on EdgeHill Plantation near Columbia, South Carolina. Portraits were chiefly reserved for the well-to-do in the nineteenth century. So who took this image and why? It turns out the portrait was taken for Louis Agassiz, a Harvard professor and world-renowned scientist in his day. He was one of the inaugural professors at the Lawrence Scientific School, the precursor today of the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences here at Harvard. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 602

Categorization

• XREF: The anomaly of an enslaved man receiving a portrait while portraiture was reserved for the well-to-do flags exactly what made these images property-contested.