Gezicht op een pastorie in Watertown, Massachusetts before 1879

Thomas R. Lewis created this albumen print titled "Gezicht op een pastorie in Watertown, Massachusetts". Lewis made it at a time when photography was becoming increasingly accessible, offering new ways of documenting and idealizing American life. These serene images of pastoral homes evoke a sense of stability and tradition, yet they also participate in a complex narrative of colonization and dispossession. The Pequot Nation, who originally inhabited this land, faced near extinction through violence and forced assimilation, their identities suppressed under "English mediation." By focusing on the architecture of colonial homes, the photograph can be said to gloss over this violent history. Lewis invites us to admire the beauty and tranquility of these homes, obscuring the displacement and erasure upon which they were built. What does it mean to find beauty in these images, knowing the history of the land they depict? Lewis asks us to reflect on the complex relationship between beauty, history, and the stories we choose to tell.