"Sometimes," Fässler said, "the 'other side' just makes the best mistakes." / / Clearly Mr. Fässler has no interest in objectivity, and is seeking controversy to garner some attention. The Globe has now done its part in his efforts. / / Though in some ways a genius, in most others Agassiz was simply a man of his times (by the way, in those times some Americans legally owned millions of other Americans and kept them in chains), so judging him by our standards, 170 years later, while embarassing for his reputation, makes about as much sense as criticizing Shakespeare for not writing 'Moby Dick', or Thomas Jefferson for not sending Lewis and Clark on a moon mission.

The Musée du Quai Branly in Paris has (or had; we saw it in February) and exhibition about colonialism, including the demeaning ways that indigenous people were portrayed by the colonizers. I don't remember whether Louis Agassiz was among the photographers whose photos were displayed, but there were certainly plenty of people who believed in big differences between the races and the superiority of the European colonizers. It's amusing to run up against the Chinese firmly held and long-standing view of Europeans as hairy, uncouth barbarians. This provides a little perspective.

Harvard should remove Agassiz name from the campus. Can you imagine having a building named after a 19th century version of Bull Connor?

Ms. Carmichael neglected to mention the most complete and compelling treatment of Agassiz's race photographs, namely Molly Roger's "Delia's Tears: Race, Science, and Photography in Nineteenth-Century America" (Yale 2010). I think Harvard cannot be accused of sheltering Louis Agassiz from scrutiny, given that Ms. Rogers had complete access to the images in question and published them in her book. The subject of Swiss attitudes toward race certainly merits attention, artistic and otherwise; there is no question that Agassiz's race ideas were well formed before he set foot on American soil in 1846. Perhaps when tempers cool an international collaboration can be effected between the Swiss and the Cantabridgians.

Hmmm - Harvard denies the images to a Swiss group, but plans to mount its own exhibition within a year? Why is it tasteful to show the photos in Cambridge, but distasteful to show them in Switzerland? Not to mention that there was plenty of room for compromise - what about exhibiting the pics, but placing a piece of paper over the private areas? Methinks this is a typical case of Harvard's control freak tendencies. In the end, the public loses, because it is important to understand the root of racism in order to conquer it.

I shared this article with a friend who lives in Switzerland and she asked me to share these thoughts with you: "The professor Christoph Irmscher, says "... his views (Agassiz') were not extraordinarily different from the racism many of his contemporaries displayed at the time," but the article does not mention the source of the racism. The still present racism and perception of colored people being inferior goes back to the transatlantic human traffic of Africa's women, children and men. As the European nations fought for leadership on an economical and political level, nationalism spread and the importance of their colonies grew. The European colonists in the Americas needed manpower. The solution was slavery! Scientists who travelled on slave-ships and who wrote reports and drew pictures as proof that the Africans were inferior helped justify the practice. Racist views go hand in hand with slavery. Slavery went hand in hand with the development of the old world. Switzerland was a "Hinterland" of slavery and with the support or on the initiative of Swiss citizens 175,000 Africans were kidnapped and shipped into slavery. We do know, however, that in the revolutionary times in Europe human rights were on the agenda. Since the early 18th century public voices rose protesting the enslavement of people based on color. Matthias Claudius dared to publish an article in the "Wandsbecker Bothe" against racial classification and the economic system of slavery - even though that newspaper was owned by the highly respected merchant Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann who profited from slave labor on sugar plantations in the West Indies. Swiss immigrants to Purrysburg SC and New Bern NC wrote letters back home, mentioning how shocked they were by the enslavement of other humans. Today the foundation cooperaxion.org, a Swiss based NGO, raises awareness of this history in Switzerland while in Brazil it supports the descendants of African slaves in their efforts to overcome the still vivid images of the 'inferior colored' people." It is indeed tragic that the thirst for power and fame of some persons and societies leaves such a legacy of suffering for so many of our fellow human beings. Exposing and condemning the role of Agassiz and other scientists in spreading such negative racial stereotypes is a good step toward healing.