Untitled (crowded schools) c. 1950

Editor: This is Jack Gould’s “Untitled (crowded schools),” a small black and white photograph in the Harvard Art Museums collection. The image feels like a memory, slightly out of reach. What symbols speak to you in this photograph? Curator: Notice the presence of older adults in a classroom setting. The "Social Studies" poster becomes an ironic marker. The image speaks to cultural memory and the complex relationship between learning, aging, and societal expectations. What emotions does that juxtaposition evoke for you? Editor: It’s a bit unsettling, to be honest. The inversion makes it feel both familiar and alien. The poster in the background feels ghostly. Curator: Precisely. Gould uses familiar symbols to create dissonance. It is an echo of a past educational system that feels lost. It almost feels like the people have become the place. Editor: I see it now. Thanks for pointing out those loaded symbols! Curator: And thank you, I learned a lot about how this feels to an emerging artist.