Lick Brook, near Ithaca, N.Y. Upper Falls, 160 feet high 1860 - 1865

J.C. Burritt captured Lick Brook, near Ithaca, New York, in a stereoscopic card, a popular form of entertainment that offered a mesmerizing three-dimensional experience during a time of immense social and technological change. These images offered a window into the American landscape that shaped cultural identity and reflected shifting relationships with nature, as industrialization progressed and urbanization increased. Lick Brook's waters, captured here, are not merely a cascade, but a source of life and a symbol of purity and renewal. Stereoscopic images provided a means of understanding the world, but also reinforced dominant cultural narratives. They remind us to consider whose stories are told, whose perspectives are included, and how these representations shape our understanding of identity and place.