For the next year, visitors at the Cayuga Museum of History and Art will be able to get a glimpse into what life was like 100 years ago in Cayuga County.
Sam Tenney / The Citizen
An antique camera and glass plate negative are on display at the Cayuga Museum as part of the new exhibit, “From Plate to Print.”
An antique camera and glass plate negative are on display at the Cayuga Museum as part of the new exhibit, “From Plate to Print.”
“From Plate to Print,” an exhibit opening Saturday, will display prints of photographs taken during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The featured pieces were taken with a long-outdated technology called glass plate negatives, a method popular at the time that captured images using plates of glass coated with light-sensitive material.
Over the years, the museum has collected thousands of these glass plate negatives, said curator Carrie Barrett. The museum recently started having the photos printed onto paper in order to preserve the timeless images.
“The plates crack, they chip, they are very, very fragile,” Barrett said. “For us to let these plates just languish in obscurity would be like not telling the whole story about the area.”
The black and white photos are of everyday, turn-of-the-century scenes in Auburn and Cayuga County. There are photos of Auburn streets teeming with people, field workers on the region's farms and families on picnics. One picture shows a group of people hoisting a man on a ladder, while another depicts two men engaged in a boxing match.
The exhibit will feature about 65 pictures at a time, and Barrett said she will rotate in new photos in order to be able to display as many pieces as possible. While the show will open on the museum's first level, it will move upstairs after its first two weeks and continue to run there for the remainder of the year.
Barrett said she chose many of her favorite pictures to kick off the show, such as a candid scene of men in a barber shop and a shot of a young girl blowing bubbles. But with the large volume of available negatives, these pictures are just the beginning, she said.
“It was a lot of fun going through the negatives,” Barrett said. “It is like looking through a treasure box, or looking at an old family album.”
After they are shown, the pictures will be added to the museum archives. And for those visitors who see a photo that they like, limited image prints of the displayed items can be made available for sale, Barrett said.
Jack Cavanaugh, a local photographer and studio owner, was the person commissioned to physically print the photos from the glass negatives. While he was working on the prints, Cavanaugh said he was struck by the idea that the people of this community were once interested in documenting everyday life, something that is not so common anymore.
One of the photos he printed shows a trolley car driving down Owasco Road. But today, people do not often think to take the time and photograph a Centro bus driving through Auburn, he said.
“It does seem that somebody should probably be consciously recording some of these images of your town or where you live, no matter where it might be, just for prosperity,” Cavanaugh said. “I felt a little guilty that, being photographer all my life, the thought never really crossed my mind.”
Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net
If you go
What: “From Plate to Print”
When: Opens Saturday, Feb. 2
Where: Cayuga Museum of History and Art, 203 Genesee St., Auburn
For details: Visit www.cayuganet.org/cayugamuseum or call 253-8051
Over the years, the museum has collected thousands of these glass plate negatives, said curator Carrie Barrett. The museum recently started having the photos printed onto paper in order to preserve the timeless images.
“The plates crack, they chip, they are very, very fragile,” Barrett said. “For us to let these plates just languish in obscurity would be like not telling the whole story about the area.”
The black and white photos are of everyday, turn-of-the-century scenes in Auburn and Cayuga County. There are photos of Auburn streets teeming with people, field workers on the region's farms and families on picnics. One picture shows a group of people hoisting a man on a ladder, while another depicts two men engaged in a boxing match.
The exhibit will feature about 65 pictures at a time, and Barrett said she will rotate in new photos in order to be able to display as many pieces as possible. While the show will open on the museum's first level, it will move upstairs after its first two weeks and continue to run there for the remainder of the year.
Barrett said she chose many of her favorite pictures to kick off the show, such as a candid scene of men in a barber shop and a shot of a young girl blowing bubbles. But with the large volume of available negatives, these pictures are just the beginning, she said.
“It was a lot of fun going through the negatives,” Barrett said. “It is like looking through a treasure box, or looking at an old family album.”
After they are shown, the pictures will be added to the museum archives. And for those visitors who see a photo that they like, limited image prints of the displayed items can be made available for sale, Barrett said.
Jack Cavanaugh, a local photographer and studio owner, was the person commissioned to physically print the photos from the glass negatives. While he was working on the prints, Cavanaugh said he was struck by the idea that the people of this community were once interested in documenting everyday life, something that is not so common anymore.
One of the photos he printed shows a trolley car driving down Owasco Road. But today, people do not often think to take the time and photograph a Centro bus driving through Auburn, he said.
“It does seem that somebody should probably be consciously recording some of these images of your town or where you live, no matter where it might be, just for prosperity,” Cavanaugh said. “I felt a little guilty that, being photographer all my life, the thought never really crossed my mind.”
Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net
If you go
What: “From Plate to Print”
When: Opens Saturday, Feb. 2
Where: Cayuga Museum of History and Art, 203 Genesee St., Auburn
For details: Visit www.cayuganet.org/cayugamuseum or call 253-8051
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