The Cayuga Museum of History and Art is ready again to tell the story of Auburn’s connection to the motion picture industry and the creation of sound on film.
Curator Haley Boothe has been working to update and expand the tours given at the facility. Now tours will not only tell the story of scientist and inventor Theodore Case but also those of the men and women who worked with him to revolutionize the film industry by creating the first viable system of recording sound on to film.
While the museum itself reopened March 1st, the lab delayed its reopening until the weather improved as the building is not heated.
The lab will reopen on Saturday April 15th tours will be held Wednesday-Saturday from 11:00a-3:00p.
“On my first day as curator of the Case Research Laboratory I was shown the impressive collection of letters, receipts, and notebooks which were kept by Theodore Case. This collection includes thousands of pages of information relevant to the history and maintenance of the lab. I immediately dove in, looking for names of employees and mentions of their duties. My main goal was to compile a list of individuals who worked at the lab, learn about their contributions, and include them in a new interpretation. As I sit here today, 10 months into my year-long project, I have found the names of 26 employees. A large number of those individuals, 10 to be precise, were found to be women. These women contributed to scientific endeavors at a time when women were largely ostracized from the scientific community, making their stories even more crucial to include. Now that the tour has been rewritten and our opening is fast approaching I am happy to say the new interpretation includes as many of the men and women who worked with Case as possible, as well as new objects and photos within the space.”
