Frozen in Time

Susan Snow Lukesh takes a mid-nineteenth century photo album from New Bedford, Massachusetts, created against a backdrop of the Civil War, and moves the people seemingly frozen in time backwards and forwards. The details of daily living, of the marrying, working, and dying of the individuals in the album demonstrate the personal side of the development of this famous whaling capital through its transition to a strong mill economy. These details also show how the financial and intellectual capital of the city fueled development throughout the United States. At their creation photograph albums portrayed, and then continued to portray years later, a community, albeit selective. Importantly, these albums, especially the album presented here, served as a source for personal and collective storytelling, functioning as links to the past, offering intimations of status and social connections and family genealogy.