Tamara Lanier

Salons at Stowe

Tamara Lanier's Fight to Free Her Ancestors from Harvard's Archives

February 6, 2020

**The Salon with Tamara Lanier is fully reserved**
**Registration is now closed**

Join the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center as we welcome Norwich resident Tamara Lanier for a discussion about her ongoing lawsuit with Harvard University over a collection of photographs depicting her ancestors and enslaved Africans, Renty and Delia. The photographs are part of a larger collection commissioned in 1850 by Harvard professor and naturalist Dr. Louis Agassiz to strengthen his theories on racism and white superiority.

Lanier’s story and subsequent lawsuit reached international attention last March and while the complex case remains in the court system, we continue to grapple with our sordid history of slavery in the United States, our thoughts about reparations for the descendants of slaves, family ties, and who are the owners of history.

Lanier will be joined by CCSU faculty and members of the Center for Africana Studies.

“My mother often told about our legacy. It was about an African pride, pride in who they were, about a legacy of literacy, of education, of religion.” ~ Tamara Lanier

Location Harriet Beecher Stowe Center / Visitor Center / 77 Forest St / Hartford

Doors Open 5:30

Program 5:30 - 7:00 pm

Apr 24

Literary Activism Locked Up

Salons at Stowe

View Event

School Group Interest Form

School Group Interest Form 2023

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

School name:

Please suggest three dates and times when your group would like to visit. (Note: the Stowe Center is closed on Sunday and Tuesday.)

Contact Teacher Name:

Contact Teacher Email:(Required)

Contact Teacher Phone Number:(Required)

Number of students expected to attend:(Required)

Please enter a number from 8 to 40.

Please identify the grade level(s) of attending students:(Required)

Likely number of chaperones (including other teachers):

The Stowe Center requires one adult per every 10 students.

Are there special student, teacher, or chaperone accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Do you plan to have lunch on site?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

Are you interested in scheduling a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Adult Group Interest Form

Group Tour Interest Form 2022

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

Group Name:

Name of Primary Contact:(Required)

Contact Email:(Required)

Contact Phone Number:(Required)

What date would you like to visit? (The Stowe Center typically books group tours for Thursday through Sunday visits.)

Expected number of visitors:(Required)

Please enter a number from 20 to 42.

Please indicate the number of adults, seniors, and children expected in your group:

Are there special accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Are you interested in a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Isabella Beecher Hooker

Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907)
An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.

Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.

In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.

In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.