New Perspectives on the Carlisle Indian School
May 3 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
In the context of the Indian boarding school system in the United States, the word “Carlisle” serves as both shorthand and symbol. Separating and honoring Carlisle both as symbol and as reality is an ongoing process, and the current exhibition “Contrasting Photos: Behind and in Front of the Camera at the Carlisle Indian School” seeks to contribute to that process. Some of the most well-known images of students from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School were the “contrast photos” which showed students “before and after”—as they first arrived at the school and after the work of assimilation had begun. These photos serve a prominent role as symbols, but the reality behind them is more complex. As students moved from paying local studios for their own portrait photographs to becoming their own photographers, they created images that reflected their own individual personalities. This talk will explore what happened when students began to exert more power both in front of and behind the camera, and how that provides a new perspective on the school.
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