"A Man to be Thankful for"? Louis Agassiz and His Contemporaries

Christoph Irmscher; Recorded August 8, 2023 - Christoph Irmscher, author of Louis Agassiz: Creator of American Science, reflected on Agassiz's legacy, his friendships with Emerson, Henry Wadsworth and Fanny Longfellow and others, and how his own thinking about Agassiz has (and hasn't) changed since he published his biography 10 years ago. The talk addressed Agassiz's scientific achievements as well as his controversial involvement in the production of racist photographs, not only the more infamous daguerreotypes but also the less familiar cache of glass negatives made in Manaus, Brazil, in 1865 (and the responses to this expedition by contemporary Brazilian artists).