Past Exhibitions

Looking Beneath the Surface

21 September–17 December 2006

Organized in collaboration with the College’s Center for the Environment and the Weissman Center for Leadership, this exhibition explores the political, ecological, historical, and personal implications of significant changes in the environment. Of particular interest are the role of home and memory, the material impacts of displacement, and the meaning and value of wilderness in American life.

A centerpiece of the exhibition is from the Museum’s collection: Albert Bierstadt’s well-known depiction of the Hetch Hetchy Canyon, the first major painting acquired by the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum at its founding in 1876. Bierstadt completed the painting in 1875 using photographs and sketches obtained during a trip to Yosemite in the summer of 1873. He had no way of knowing then that his painting would become one of the only ways that people of future generations would be able to appreciate the awesome beauty of this valley. When the Tuolumne River that flows through the valley was dammed in the early part of the 20th century, Hetch Hetchy Canyon was submerged beneath millions of gallons of water. This sublime depiction of the pre-flood valley, suffused with golden light, has been reproduced countless times over the years, and never more so than in the flurry of recent press about the proposed plan to recover the lost paradise.

Massachusetts had its own urban water problem in the early 20th century. Searching for a solution to the water shortage in Boston, experts looked to the Swift River Valley, 60 miles to the west. In 1922, the state legislature endorsed a plan to dam the Swift River and inundate the valley to form what was to become the Quabbin Reservoir. When work on the dam and the aqueduct to Boston began in 1931, property owners in the soon-to-be-submerged towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott were forced to sell their homes, factories, and farms. Looking Beneath the Surface showcases rare photographs recording the process of clearing the valley of structures and trees.

The next chapter in the story of “the Quabbin,” as it is known, goes beyond its water or its history of loss. Taken together, the reservoir and its watershed area constitute the largest land preserve in the state, an “accidental wilderness” that continues to delight hikers, naturalists, and artists.

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