Cayuga Museum of History & Art (8/5/2026)

Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Now we are headed to RI, but first stopping at the Cayuga Museum of History & Art in Auburn, NY. Using our Tyler Arboretum membership, we did not even have to pay extra for the Case Research Laboratory Tour.

Case Research Laboratory in a greenhouse converted in 1916

Small laboratory ovens used by Ted Case (on L) and
his friend and fellow scientist Earl Sponable, to heat
experimental minerals; both were educated at Yale

They would then test the electrical conductivity and light
sensitivity of the heated mineral, which led to the
development of the thalofide photoelectric cell

Women also worked in the laboratory and were
the ones to create glass bulbs, including the
thalofide cell; Ted Case married one of
the women, Alice Gertrude Eldred

The thalofide cell was used by the US Navy
in a top secret infrared signaling system during
World War II; the transmitter is in the top tube
of the device, covered by an infrared filter, and
the receiver is in the lower tube with the
Thalofide cell to turn invisible infrared waves
into an electric signal seen as green flashes

A Power's Cameragraph #6, 35mm hand-
cranked silent motion picture projector
that was modified by Case to record sound,
experimenting with thalofide cell and AEO
bulb (a specialized gas-discharge argon
bulb that converted electrical audio
signals into light variations)

JM Wall 35mm Motion Picture Camera
mounted on a classic wooden tripod was a
newsreel camera with an integrated optical
sound recording system to capture audio and
video simultaneously on the same strip of film;
Ted Case is credited with inventing and
perfecting the Movietone sound-on-film system

Chemical laboratory

Ted Case's office in the laboratory

Laboratory dark room

The second floor of the former carriage house served as
the sound studio during experimentation, and may be where
Case and Sponable, not getting cooperation from their
filming partner Lee de Forest, retrofitted a camera
themselves which proved successful in recording
President Calvin Coolidge, although de Forest
claimed it was his equipment and took all the credit

Willard-Case Mansion (1836 in Greek Revival style)
was purchased by Dr Sylvester Willard and his
father-in-law Erastus Case in 1843; in 1916 the house went
to Ted Case's father, who allowed Ted to use the property;
Ted then gave the property and everything in it to a
group who wanted to use it as a museum in 1936

Parts of the original molding and wallpaper have been left

A medical examination table (c 1875)

A curved Tiffany window (c 1897) was
commissioned by the daughters of Dr Willard

Displays in the parlor included a dress of
unknown date, blue & white Jacquard coverlet
(1851, by Sarah Howe) and a WWII uniform

Stained glass window (1922) from the B'Nai Israel
Synagogue that was razed in 1973

Promotional items including an
Abner Doubleday Bobblehead (2020) and
a model of Falcon Park Stadium (2020)

Main stairway

Sa:gwáyoˀ Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ Cayuga People, We Returned:

Rattles made with cow horn and filled with bladdernut seeds

Ectopistes migratorius/Passenger Pigeon

From the Hands of the Creator (1986,
by Tom Huff/Seneca-Cayuga Deer Clan)

Ganradaisgowah/Peace Tree (c 2007, by
Samuel Thomas/Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ Cayuga Wolf Clan)

Historical Beadwork Assortment (late 19C-early 21C);
in Niagara Falls the women producing and selling beadwork
enabled their communities to secure the right to remain in the
region when otherwise they would have been removed to Kansas

The title of the indigenous exhibit refers to the
Sullivan-Clinton Expedition recorded in this 
Daybook of Colonel John Hardenbergh, when in 1779
George Washington ordered a military campaign to
essentially wipe out the Haudenosaunee allies of
the British; over 5,000 Haudenosaunee fled to
Fort Niagara for British protection, but over
time the Cayuga people returned

New Dining Room woodwork

Mastadon molar

Looking down the main stairway; note the woodwork

Harriet: A Taste of Freedom:

The Ironing Board is Out (2023,
by Anne Bouie)

Minty (2026, by Levi Robinson)

Harriet Tubman Dolls (2024,
by Pat McLean Smith)

Children's Room

Romance Map of the Finger Lakes (1939,
by art students under the direction of Walter Long,
founding director of the museum) was displayed
at the 1939 World's Fair in Queens, NY

Commemorative Pin for 30 years of service
and an Officer Badge for a correction officer
at the Auburn Correctional Facility, which
was New York State’s oldest operating
maximum-security prison and the site of the
world's first execution by electric chair in 1890

Miniature chest of drawers (late 1800s,
constructed by inmates at the Auburn Prison,
is made partly from cigar boxes

Inventions of Auburn: International Time
Recording Company Clock (1897,
by Willard LeGrand Bundy) for
employees to punch in and out of work

Bundy Thousand Year Clock (1880s,
by Willard LeGrand Bundy in his spare
time working as a jeweler)

Bundy Thousand Year Clock detail

We also stopped at the Kirkland Art Center
in Clinton, NY, but they were between exhibits

Kirkland Art Center doors (1842-1843
as a Methodist church)

Village Green

Village Green fountain (1939)

Clinton Volunteer Fire Department (1950)

Lumbard Memorial Hall (1926, by Arthur L Easingwood
in Georgian Revival style) serves as a municipal building
housing the Village of Clinton and Town of Kirkland offices