Agassiz commissioned Zealy’s nude photographs of enslaved people for Harvard.

Evidence

I read on and learned that Louis Agassiz was “the premier scientist of his time.” As an agent of Harvard, he commissioned the photographer J. T. Zealy to capture nude images of Renty and other African-born enslaved men and women. Pointing to the stark physical differences, Agassiz concluded that blacks were a separate and lesser species, deserving to be enslaved. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 155