Charles William Eliot (1834-1926)

Curator: Here we have Léon Deschamps' bronze medal commemorating Charles William Eliot, the president of Harvard, around 8 cm in diameter. Editor: It feels like a pat on the back, doesn’t it? That solemn profile, the imposing architecture… it's about institutional power, who gets remembered, and how. Curator: And yet, consider the craft. Deschamps captures Eliot's likeness with such precision, and the Harvard buildings…it’s like a little world captured in bronze. It makes me think about legacy, about how we choose to immortalize figures. Editor: But legacy is selective. Who decides what aspects of Eliot’s presidency are celebrated here? What about those who were excluded from that hallowed “world” by race or class? Curator: Yes, that's fair. But maybe art, even commemorative art, can be a starting point for those difficult conversations. Editor: Precisely, art can be a critical engagement that forces us to consider the broader social implications and histories of exclusion. Curator: Ultimately, I appreciate how such a small object makes us confront such big ideas. Editor: A potent reminder that history is never neutral.