Latest news with #LouisAgassiz
ABC News
05-07-2025
- General
- ABC News
Slow looking is your ticket to deeper insights, better writing and quieter skies
The best piece of writing advice I have ever heard is only four words long: "Look at your fish." I first discovered this in an interview the American historian David McCullough did with the Paris Review. In it, he cites renowned Harvard teacher Louis Agassiz, a 19th century naturalist, who placed a smelly, dead fish in a tin pan in front of his new students and told them to look at it. Then he would leave the room: When he came back, he would ask the student what he'd seen. Not very much, they would most often say, and Agassiz would say it again: Look at your fish. This could go on for days. The student would be encouraged to draw the fish but could use no tools for the examination, just hands and eyes. Samuel Scudder, who later became a famous entomologist and expert on grasshoppers, left us the best account of the "ordeal with the fish." After several days, he still could not see whatever it was Agassiz wanted him to see. But, he said, I see how little I saw before. Then Scudder had a brainstorm and he announced it to Agassiz the next morning: Paired organs, the same on both sides. Of course! Of course! Agassiz said, very pleased. So, Scudder naturally asked what he should do next, and Agassiz said, Look at your fish. When I was writing a lengthy biography of a much pored-over British queen, I wrote these words on a card and pinned it above my desk. I had to believe that if I went back and scrutinised the archives, held myths and stereotypes up to the light, then scrutinised the archives again, that I would see things others had missed. So, I looked at that fish for years. This is why the re-emerging idea of "slow looking" in art galleries and museums is such a wonderful one; it encourages intense observation, attention to detail, reverence for art, skepticism about what first glances reveal, appreciation of learning, respect for the subject. It can be done anywhere — and it might even sharpen our instincts to be better able to identify the hand of artificial intelligence. The slow looking movement seems to have quickened its pace in recent years — the Tate employed it for an exhibition on Bonnard (they had a lovely take on how to slow look), as did the UK National Gallery during lockdown, galleries in New York City and our National Gallery too. The Frederiksberg Museums in Denmark is encouraging slow looking as therapy for young people with poor mental health. The program, called See Listen Talk, is done in collaboration with Roskilde University and is intended to foster social connection and build empathy along with recovery. Dr Kasper Levin, associate professor of social psychology and aesthetics at Roskilde University, says: "Many mental health conditions are linked to disrupted perceptions of time and space, which affect one's sense of self. Slow looking may help participants restructure these perceptions, fostering a sense of coherence and stability." Surveys show people spend mere seconds looking at pieces of art, and often just glance. But museum educator Clare Bown says slow looking is not "simply the amount of time that you spend with something, it's the belief that all discovery originates in looking. Slow looking simply requires us to be present, patient and willing to immerse ourselves in the act of observation." Shari Tishman, author of Slow Looking: The Art and Practice of Learning Through Observation, published in 2017, argues that taking time to immerse yourself in the details of a range of objects — of anything, really — can unlock your brain, help you think and learn better, more critically, and more meaningfully. Core to this is patience. In 2013 American art historian Jennifer Roberts wrote an article titled Power of Patience about teaching students the value of deceleration and immersive attention. In it, she described challenging her art history students to dedicate three hours to a single work of art. She wrote: "Every external pressure, social and technological, is pushing students in the other direction, toward immediacy, rapidity, and spontaneity — and against this other kind of opportunity. I want to give them the permission and the structures to slow down." Roberts's technique for teaching is fascinating. Each of her students chooses a work of art to write an intensive research paper about. The first thing she tells them to do is "spend a painfully long time looking at that object." One example she gives is A Boy With A Flying Squirrel, painted in Boston in 1765 by John Singleton Copley. The student would need to — before doing anything else — sit in front of it in the Museum of Fine Arts for three hours, writing down what they see. She says when she did this herself: It took me nine minutes to notice that the shape of the boy's ear precisely echoes that of the ruff along the squirrel's belly — and that Copley was making some kind of connection between the animal and the human body and the sensory capacities of each. It was 21 minutes before I registered the fact that the fingers holding the chain exactly span the diameter of the water glass beneath them. It took a good 45 minutes before I realised that the seemingly random folds and wrinkles in the background curtain are actually perfect copies of the shapes of the boy's ear and eye, as if Copley had imagined those sensory organs distributing or imprinting themselves on the surface behind him. And so on. The art world has many advocates for this approach. For decades, British art critic Peter Clotheri has run one-hour meditation sessions in front of pieces of art, which he wrote about in his book Slow Looking in 2012. But now slow looking is being used in a range of disciplines and areas, colouring more public discussions about education and understanding. It's not just about looking at art, in other words, but about looking at the world. In 2000, historian James Elkins wrote a delicious book called How to Use Your Eyes. In it, he invites readers to look at — and maybe to see for the first time — the world around us, with quite astonishing outcomes. He suggests mandalas, the periodic table, an Egyptian hieroglyph, postage stamps, grass, a twig. In his book On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes, Alexander Horowitz tells us to turn fresh eyes to the paths we walk or drive down every day, and note how much more we can see. I appreciate that some reading this might say: "Oh, it's very well for a bunch of academics to sit and stare at squirrels or fish for hours a day — most of us don't have time." But we don't hesitate to spend several hours on screens. This is in an era where we are being constantly bombarded with news and information, some of it deeply disturbing, much of it skewed and false. Consuming anything slowly, paying deep careful attention, has become profoundly counter-cultural. Anything that serves as an antidote to chronic distraction, that pulls our gaze from pulsing, popping screens to quieter skies surely should be applauded. Juila Baird is an author, broadcaster, journalist and co-host of the ABC podcast, Not Stupid.
BBC News
30-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Harvard agrees to transfer photos of enslaved people to black history museum
Harvard University has agreed to hand over a set of historic photos believed to be among the earliest depicting enslaved people in the United agreement ends a long legal battle between the institution and Tamara Lanier, an author from Connecticut who argues she is a descendant of two people shown in the images, taken in 1850, will be transferred to the International African American Museum in South Carolina, where the people shown in the photos were said it had always hoped the photos would be given to another museum. Ms Lanier said she was "ecstatic" with the result. The images are daguerreotypes, a very early form of modern-day photographs and were taken 15 years before the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolished photos were rediscovered in storage at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in 1976. The 15 images feature people identified by the Peabody Museum as Alfred, Delia, Drana, Fassena, Jack, Jem, and Renty. According to Ms Lanier, the settlement would mean the transfer of all the images not just the ones about Renty and Delia. The photos were commissioned by Harvard professor and zoologist Louis Agassizm as part of discredited research to prove the superiority of white people. He espoused polygenism, a now debunked belief that human races evolved case formed part of public debate around how America's universities should respond to their historic links to slavery. In 2016, Harvard Law School agreed to change a shield that was based on the crest of an 18th Century did not comment on the details of the settlement but a university spokesperson said it "has long been eager to place the Zealy Daguerreotypes with another museum or other public institution to put them in the appropriate context and increase access to them for all Americans."The spokesperson added that Ms Lanier's "claim to ownership of the daguerreotypes created a complex situation, especially because Harvard has not been able to confirm that Ms Lanier is related to the individuals in the daguerreotypes." Ms Lanier sued Harvard in 2019, arguing the images were taken without consent and accusing the university of profiting from them through large licensing 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld an earlier ruling that dismissed Ms Lanier's claim to ownership. She was, however, allowed to claim damages for emotional distress. It ruled Harvard had "complicity" in the "horrific actions" surrounding the creation of the images."Harvard's present obligations cannot be divorced from its past abuses," it Lanier told the BBC, she was "ecstatic" about the settlement. "I have always known first of all that I could never care for the daguerreotypes at the level they would require," she said. "There are so many ties that bind Renty and Delia and the other enslaved people to that particular part of South Carolina that to repatriate them there would be like a homecoming ceremony."The South Carolina museum helped Ms Lanier with her genealogy claims but was not involved in the legal battle. Its president said they intend to hold and display the images "in context with truth and empathy.""These are not gentle images and the story behind how they came to be is even more difficult to hear," Tonya Matthews told the BBC. "So to be in a space that has already created room for conversations about the inhumanity of slavery and enslavement and how far those implications echo even to today is what we do and it's our mission."
Washington Post
28-05-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Harvard relinquishes possession of slave photos after a 15-year dispute
Centuries-old images of an enslaved man and his daughter, believed to be the earliest-known photographs of enslaved people in the United States, were relinquished by Harvard University after a 15-year-long legal battle. Connecticut woman Tamara Lanier says she is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Renty Taylor, an enslaved man photographed nude alongside his daughter in the winter of 1850 in images commissioned by a Harvard scientist, Louis Agassiz. She sued Harvard for ownership of the photos in 2019.
Reuters
28-05-2025
- General
- Reuters
Harvard to relinquish slave photos to resolve descendant's lawsuit
BOSTON, May 28 (Reuters) - Harvard University has agreed to give up ownership of photos of an enslaved father and his daughter who were forced to be photographed in 1850 for a racist study by a professor trying to prove the inferiority of Black people to resolve a lawsuit by one of their descendants. The settlement was announced on Wednesday by the legal team representing Tamara Lanier, who had waged a six-year legal battle over what she alleged was its wrongful claim of ownership over photos that were taken without her ancestors' consent. The two photos will not go to Lanier as part of the settlement, but instead will be turned over along with pictures of five other enslaved people to the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina. The settlement was first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by a spokesperson for Lanier's legal team. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The settlement comes at a sensitive moment for Harvard, as the university fights in court against efforts by Republican President Donald Trump's administration to terminate billions of dollars in grant funding and end its ability to enroll foreign students. The lawsuit, opens new tab concerned images that depict Renty Taylor and his daughter Delia, slaves on a South Carolina plantation who were forced to disrobe for photos taken for a racist study by Harvard Professor Louis Agassiz. The photos were being kept at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology on Harvard's campus when Lanier, a descendant of Taylor, sued in 2019. A state court judge in Massachusetts initially dismissed the case. But the state's highest court revived it in 2022, saying she had plausibly alleged that Harvard was negligent and had recklessly caused her to suffer emotional distress. Justice Scott Kafker, writing for the court at the time, said Harvard had "cavalierly" dismissed Lanier's claims of an ancestral link and disregarded her requests for information about how it was using the images, including when the school used Renty Taylor's image on a book cover. He said Harvard's complicity in the "horrific" creation of the pictures meant it had "responsibilities to the descendants of the individuals coerced into having their half-naked images captured in the daguerreotypes."
