Wharton Studio Museum

10/16/2026

WSM and The History Center proudly present THE MYSTERY OF THE ROCKS OF KADOR (1912) with an introduction by Mark Sandberg, Professor of Film & Media, UC Berkeley.
This event is part of Silent Movie Month in Ithaca and will be a free screening at Cinemapolis in downtown Ithaca. See you there!
🎥 “The Mystery of the Rocks of Kador” (1912)
🗓️ Monday, October 19
⏰ 6:30 PM
📍 Cinemapolis
🎟️ FREE & OPEN TO ALL

10/15/2026

Silent Movie Month continues with a screening of MALOMBRA (1917) with live score by acclaimed musicians Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton.
Silent film diva Lyda Borelli stars in this Italian silent film based on the 1881 novel by Antonio Fogazzaro.
🗓️ Sunday, October 18
⏰ 5:30 PM
📍 Willard Straight Hall on Cornell’s campus
🎟️ Tickets: cinema.cornell.edu/malombra-live-score-donald-sosin-and-joanna-seaton

10/12/2026

**Screening as part of Silent Movie Month presented by Wharton Studio Museum - Weds. October 14, 6 PM!**

In 1920, one brilliant movie jolted the postwar masses and catapulted the German Expressionist film movement into history. That movie was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a plunge into the mind of insanity that severs all ties with the rational world. Director Robert Wiene and a team of visionary designers crafted a nightmare realm in which light, shadow and substance are abstracted, a world in which a demented doctor and a carnival sleepwalker perpetrate a series of ghastly murders in a small community.

10/12/2026

Join us this Wednesday, October 14 at 6pm for a screening of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920) at Cinemapolis and enter our Silent Movie Month Raffle!

You could win a fabulous Flip-O-Scope produced by our friends at Mechanical Flipbook Studios here in Ithaca, along with a book about silent film history, a limited-edition Silent Movie Month poster and a matching bookmark!

The raffle tickets are $5 a piece. All proceeds help off-set the cost of the screening, which is presented by Cinemapolis and co-sponsored by Wharton Studio Museum.

Movie ticket link: cinemapolis.org/movie/the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari

10/09/2026

WSM is excited for this upcoming Silent Movie Month event in collaboration with wonderful Odyssey Bookstore! See you October 21st at Cinemapolis! Thank you, Odyssey!

Odyssey is excited to once again be a part of Wharton Studios Silent Movie Month 🎥🎞️📚🙌🏻‼️ This year we’ll be partnering to help host a conversation with authors Susan Gere Carter and Jeffrey Blount at cinemapolos at 6pm on Wednesday October 21. We’ll be joined by Samantha Sheppard, professor of cinema and media at Cornell.

Susan’s debut novel takes place in Ithaca during the Silent Movie era and promises to be a great match for Silent Movie Month!

Thanks to our partners Wharton Studio Museum and Cinemapolis 🥰.

10/08/2026

Who doesn’t love a raffle?! Come see “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920) on Wed., October 14th at 6pm at Cinemapolis and enter our Silent Movie Month Raffle!

You could win a fabulous Flip-O-Scope produced by our friends at Mechanical Flipbook Studios here in Ithaca, along with a book about silent film history, a limited-edition Silent Movie Month poster and a matching bookmark!
The raffle tickets are $5 a piece. All proceeds help off-set the cost of the screening, which is presented by Cinemapolis and co-sponsored by Wharton Studio Museum.

Get your movie tickets here: cinemapolis.org/movie/the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari
See you at the movies!

10/05/2026

This Wednesday, October 7, join us for another Silent Movie Month screening of “The Great K&A Train Robbery (1926)”. In the silent film, a detective, disguised as a bandit, infiltrates a group of train robberies while falling in love with the K and A railroad’s president’s daughter.
Diana Riesman, founding director of WSM will introduce the film and lead a Q&A afterwards.
This screening will run from 6:00-8:00pm at the Carriage House Theater in Auburn, NY. This event is free to attend but donations are greatly appreciated.
🎥
This series is in conjunction with Cayuga Museum’s ongoing film exhibit, “The Reel American West,” which is on display at the museum through January 2, 2027, and explores the history of the Western genre and Theodore Case’s role in the production of the first feature-length sound-on-film Western, “In Old Arizona (1928).”

10/04/2026

Thank you to the wonderful audience of 100 people who came to see SNOW WHITE (1916) — this year’s inaugural Silent Movie Month event — with lovely musical accompaniment on harp and viola by Leslie McMichael (who composed the original score) and Barbara McMichael yesterday afternoon at Cinemapolis. A cheer filled the theater after the film ended! SNOW WHITE stars Marguerite Clark and featured Creighton Hale as the Prince!* The film, originally thought to have been lost, was completely engaging with beautiful costumes and set design. Ithaca was the final stop on the McMichael sisters’ ten-gig East coast tour! Thank you to them both! And thank you, Cinemapolis, for hosting the screening on Free Movie Day!

*Creighton Hale, a well-known actor of the time, worked for Ithaca’s Wharton, Inc. Studio in the nineteen- teens starring alongside Pearl White and Lionel Barrymore in THE ROMANCE OF ELAINE.

Visit whartonstudiomuseum.org for a full schedule of Silent Movie Month events all October-long.

10/02/2026

Join us tomorrow as we kick off Silent Movie Month with a free screening of SNOW WHITE (1916) with a live score performed by harpist Leslie McMichael and Barbara McMichael on viola.
Directed by J. Searle Dawley, this silent romantic fantasy inspired a young Walt Disney to create his own animated version twenty-one years later.

Saturday, October 3, 2026 at 2:30pm
Cinemapolis, 120 E Green St, Downtown Ithaca

10/01/2026

Join us this Saturday at Cinemapolis for the first event of Silent Movie Month with a free screening of “Snow White” (1916)!

**Free Screening, Sat. October 3, 2:30 PM with Live Musical Accompaniment by harpist-composer Leslie McMichael and violist Barbara McMichael - Part of Cinemapolis Free Movie Day presented by True
Insurance and Cat''s Pajamas & Silent Movie Month presented by Wharton Studio Museum!**

Seven dwarfs come to the aid of Snow White (Marguerite Clark) after evil Queen Brangomar (Dorothy Cu***ng) tries to poison her.

See you at the movies!