Lanier’s 2011 letter to Faust framed the daguerreotypes as evidence of slavery’s evils.

Evidence

The purpose of this correspondence is to formally request your assistance in a matter that has by many been deemed historically significant. Approximately thirty-seven years ago, a Harvard associate unearthed an amazing discovery. Found in the Peabody Museum were piercing and poignant images of the evils of slavery. In 1850, Louis Agassiz commissioned the photographer J. T. Zealy to capture what he believed to be evidence of racial inferiority. The enslaved men and women depicted in these daguerreotypes have touched the hearts and conscience of people worldwide. Amazingly, I have historical and US Census information confirming that two of these slaves are in fact my ancestors. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 291