Who Owns Photos Of Dead Slaves?

They are stark historical images, but they are also long-lost family photos that depict the ancestors of some people who are alive today. Tamara Lanier says she is one of them, specifically that she is a descendant of two slaves whose daguerreotype photo has been held closely by Harvard University since it was taken as part of a racist study in 1850, and most recently used as the cover illustration for a $40 anthropology book. Now Lanier is suing for the return of the photos to the family and for damages, including punitive damages. Defendants, per this New York Time account, could argue the ancestry claim is uncertain, and that in any case the old daguerreotypes must be kept in a highly controlled environment like the one at Harvard in order to keep them preserved at all.