Untitled (bedroom, dressing table to left) c. 1920

Curator: This sepia photograph, simply titled "Untitled (bedroom, dressing table to left)" is held in the Harvard Art Museums collection and credited to Martin Schweig. Editor: Immediately, I'm struck by its stillness, almost a hushed quality, like entering a room where time has stopped. The light is soft, filtered. Curator: Note how the objects in the room—the dressing table, the bed, the portraits on the wall—speak to a certain domesticity and perhaps even to the roles prescribed to women within that space. Editor: The portraits above the mantle catch my eye. Images of ancestors, perhaps? They lend the room a sense of lineage, of stories passed down. Curator: Considering Schweig's focus, it's possible this image captures the zeitgeist of its time, reflecting societal expectations and the interior lives of women. Editor: The soft light and sepia tones lend it a timeless quality, almost like a memory. The room almost has a soul. Curator: Precisely, and that intersection of the personal and the social allows us to consider how lived experiences are shaped by broader cultural forces. Editor: Yes, seeing the traces of personal history through those symbolic objects makes you wonder about the woman who made this room her own.