Boylston Hall 1861 - 1866

Curator: This is a photograph of Boylston Hall, now housed here at the Harvard Art Museums. The photographer is George Kendall Warren. Editor: It feels so…stark. Like a forgotten memory, or a stage set waiting for a play that never starts. Curator: Indeed, the image captures the architecture with a certain solemnity, typical of photographic documentation in that era. It speaks to the institutional power structures inherent in academic spaces. Editor: But what if that power is illusory? What if the building is just a container for dreams, a place where identities are molded, sometimes painfully? It makes me wonder about the untold stories within its walls. Curator: Precisely. It invites us to consider the narratives of exclusion and privilege perpetuated by institutions like Harvard, and the voices historically marginalized within them. Editor: It's a bit of a melancholic beauty, really, this photo. It reminds me that even the grandest facades can’t hide the human stories that echo through time. Curator: A potent reminder of the complexities embedded in even the seemingly simple act of documenting architecture.