PBS Books, in partnership with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), will host a conversation to discuss the History, Race, and Photography, highlighting the recently released book To Make Their Own Way in the World: The Enduring Legacy of the Zealy Daguerreotypes.  This book is a profound consideration of some of the most challenging images in the history of photography: fifteen daguerreotypes—men and women of African descent who were enslaved in South Carolina. The conversation will feature four extraordinary scholars; Ilisa Barbash, Deborah Willis, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, and Sarah Elizabeth Lewis.

This important conversation will delve into the daguerreotypes that were made by photographer Joseph T. Zealy for Harvard professor Louis Agassiz in 1850 and were rediscovered at the Peabody Museum in 1976. Since that time, the images have drawn worldwide interest, provoking wide-ranging interpretation and raising critical questions about the history and conditions of slavery, racism, representation, and identity.  The conversation will examine the role the photography plays in discussing race and our history.