View of Goat Island, and Part of the Sclosher Fall, Niagara Falls c. 1820

Curator: Alvan Fisher, who lived from 1792 to 1863, captured this scene titled "View of Goat Island, and Part of the Sclosher Fall, Niagara Falls." The work is currently held at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It has a ghostly feeling to it, all light greys and muted tones. It’s like a half-remembered dream of a landscape, grand but distant. Curator: The ethereal quality might stem from its context. Fisher was working within a time of significant colonial expansion and industrial change. How did ideas about Manifest Destiny and the construction of the American landscape influence the way this scene was represented? Editor: Perhaps that sense of the sublime, the awe-inspiring power of nature, was a way to grapple with those massive social shifts. Curator: Exactly. It’s about more than just pretty scenery; it’s about power, and the relationship between humanity and nature. Editor: I’ll definitely look at Niagara Falls differently now, with that complex history swirling in the mist.