Untitled (boy on chair reading Dartmouth Alumni magazine) c. 1950

Curator: This photogram, attributed to Lucian and Mary Brown, shows a boy engrossed in a "Dartmouth Alumni Magazine." It is small, only about 5x4 inches. Editor: The negative impression creates an uncanny effect, like a ghostly emanation of childhood intellect and aspiration. Curator: Note the chair, the lamp, the magazine itself—these are objects imbued with status, signifiers of a certain class background and educational trajectory. What kind of labor went into producing the magazine? Editor: Perhaps it signifies a cultural continuity, the passing down of values and intellectual traditions through generations. I see aspiration, social mobility—or the predetermination thereof. Curator: And the photogram process itself—a direct impression, no camera, almost like a material trace of an idea. Editor: Yes, almost as if the very idea of "Dartmouth" is imprinting itself upon this young mind. A poignant, if unsettling, image.