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By Shane M. Liebler / The Citizen

Friday, June 29, 2007 11:19 PM EDT

AUBURN - What's in a name?
Jason Rearick / The Citizen
Paul and Elmerina Parkman, of Kensington Md., look through “The Streets Where We Live” exhibit during its opening at the Cayuga Museum Friday evening. The Parkmans are both originally from Weedsport and have family in the area.
The Cayuga Museum of History & Art has several answers to the question in the “The Streets Where We Live” exhibit, which opened Friday night.

“A lot of them are named after (William H.) Seward's relatives,” Gail Schult said while looking over a list of streets and namesakes.

The exhibit includes some explanations, maps and photos of street scenes. The museum hopes to gather more photos from city families who have lived on the same street for generations, museum director Eileen McHugh said.

“We're soliciting the public for pictures of life on the streets,” she said. “We want people in the community to share their personal history on their streets.”

McHugh used the Ryan family's submissions as an example. They staged modern photos in the same places on VanAnden Street as snapshots from the family album.

“They live in the house their grandfather grew up in,” McHugh said pointing to a batch of the most recent Ryan siblings. “There are many families in Auburn like this.”

A bulletin board will display pictures posed on porches from the past and present that can be hand-delivered or sent to the museum at 203 Genesee St. Students from Casey Park elementary completed the sentence “The best street in Auburn is ... ” and drew pictures of their homes for one display.

Looking over street names and landscapes brought back many fond memories for the Parkmans, who were up from Kensington, Md., visiting family. The Weedsport natives recalled a number of their old haunts, many of which are no longer standing.

“The maps remind you of those places,” said Paul Parkman, who attended the opening with his wife, Elmerina.

Audrey DiMatties was trying to locate her East Genesee Street home in some of the postcards on display.

“I think its very interesting and fascinating,” she said. “I think people don't look back enough to see where they came from.”

The streets exhibit will run through October. The museum also opened “From Sacred To Symbol and Back Again,” an exhibit that explores the use of inaccurate Indian imagery in early tourism promotion, on Friday.

The one-room engagement is part of six-installment display of different facets of the Finger Lakes. Each piece will rotate between the Geneva Historical Society, History Center in Tompkins County, Chemung Valley History Museum, Yates Genealogical & Historical Society, Ontario Historical Society and Cayuga Museum.

“Every summer now for the next six years we will get a different exhibit,” McHugh said.

The Native American exhibit runs through August.

Staff writer Shane Liebler can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or shane.liebler@lee.net

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