Cliff of the Harp

Curator: This is a stereograph titled "Cliff of the Harp," captured by Elias Olcott Beaman. It's part of the collection at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It's quite striking. The scale is so impressive, the steep cliffs towering above that body of water. I find it almost unsettling. Curator: As a stereograph, it's meant to give a three-dimensional effect when viewed through a stereoscope. This was a popular form of entertainment, allowing viewers to experience landscapes in a novel way. How would this image reflect the impact of nineteenth-century technology on social and cultural viewpoints? Editor: I wonder about the indigenous populations that surely inhabited this landscape before its romanticized depiction and mass consumption through photography. Whose gaze does this stereograph truly represent? Curator: That's a very important point to keep in mind. It reminds us that representation is never neutral. Editor: Indeed, it's a complicated beauty.