Untitled (postmortem image of baby in casket) after 1910

Curator: This is an untitled photograph, a postmortem image of a baby in a casket, by Martin Schweig. It's part of the Harvard Art Museums collection. Editor: It's stark. The high contrast emphasizes the stillness, the almost manufactured peace of the scene. What do we know about such objects? Curator: Postmortem photography served a specific function. Bereaved families often commissioned these images as keepsakes, to remember a child gone too soon in an era with high mortality rates. Editor: The material conditions really do determine the value of art. Photography democratized access to portraiture, particularly for those grieving. It highlights photography's role in shaping memory. Curator: And the photograph itself, a relatively small print, becomes a tangible object of mourning, a manufactured and circulated material good. Editor: A sobering, yet important reminder of how we grapple with loss, shaped by both personal grief and available technology.