Edward Charles Pickering (1846-1919) 1911

Curator: The first thing that strikes me about this portrait is the weight of it, the gravity. It feels very…academic, doesn't it? Editor: Indeed. This is Sarah Gooll Putnam's rendering of Edward Charles Pickering, the director of the Harvard College Observatory. The dark background really accentuates the sitter, doesn't it? It speaks to a particular kind of institutional power. Curator: Absolutely. And the red gown, like a cardinal's robe, but for science. I wonder what he's reading? Probably something wonderfully obscure. Editor: Perhaps. It’s worth noting that Pickering also oversaw a staff of women "computers" who processed astronomical data. A complicated figure in terms of gender and labor, perhaps? Curator: Ah, there's always a twist, isn’t there? A shadow behind every great man. Editor: Precisely. This portrait, then, opens a space to consider the unseen figures whose work made his accomplishments possible. Curator: A fitting reminder that even in the grandest portraits, there are always untold stories waiting to be illuminated. Editor: Exactly. Art invites us to look beyond the surface, to challenge and re-imagine the narratives we inherit.