Water Babies 1876

Curator: This is "Water Babies," a stereoscopic card by Centennial Photographic Co., likely dating to around 1876. It presents two cherubic figures nestled in a large scallop shell. Editor: The sepia tones give it a dreamlike quality, almost as if pulled from a Victorian-era fairy tale. It evokes feelings of innocence and vulnerability. Curator: The stereoscopic format itself speaks to the cultural obsession with creating depth and realism, playing with notions of perception and truth. It also speaks to the commodification of art through mass production. Editor: And that shell, the perfect receptacle, literally contains them. The material suggests something precious, almost a vessel for their purity. But what statement is it making to showcase children in this way? Curator: Perhaps it reflects anxieties surrounding childhood and innocence during the late 19th century. These images were popular; reflecting societal ideals and anxieties back at the viewer through this construction of cherubic innocence. Editor: Exactly. It's a window into the values and the hidden labor practices of the time—both of the image and whatever sculptural form it is representing. Curator: Definitely. These images invite us to look beyond the surface and contemplate the social and historical forces at play. Editor: Absolutely. Seeing the original object and this reproduction side-by-side reveals so much about the era’s manufacturing of childhood itself.