Ellie Reichlin understood the daguerreotypes as degrading images of real people

Evidence

We spoke for hours that day. I was in awe of his many medical accomplishments; of his world-renowned leadership in the field of neuroendocrinology, and that he was the University of Connecticut School of Medicine’s first medical director in 1969. … He shared with me his memories of Ellie coming home from work the day she found the daguerreotypes. … “She was rattled,” he explained. “Soon thereafter, she brought home copies of the three-by-five-inch images that a colleague was able to blow up into eight-by-ten-inch prints. She was very ambivalent about even viewing them. She found it all very painful.” … I knew from the way he spoke about her that she was a kindred spirit, someone who understood in an empathetic way how degrading these images were. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 726