Wharton Studio Museum is preserving and celebrating Ithaca's role in early American filmmaking, and developing the historic Wharton Studio building in Stewart Park into Wharton Studio & Café with exhibits and installations about film history and the history of the park.

WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE'RE DOING 

Wharton Studio Museum produces four annual events -- Silent Movie Under the Stars (August); Silent Movie Month (October); Southern Tier Student Film Festival (spring); and Party for the Park (September, in collaboration with Friends of Stewart Park) -- in addition to other screenings, presentations and exhibits throughout the year. View our Calendar of Events and Exhibits for full details.

EVENTS, EXHIBITS, AND PROGRAMS

YOU help support WSM's mission, programming and educational outreach when you make a gift!

WAYS TO SUPPORT

Finger Lakes Film Trail Logo

 
 
 
Making Noise About Silent Film

Preserving and celebrating a historic motion picture studio in Ithaca, NY.

Events, Exhibits, and Programs

A Screening of “A Romance of the Air”

WSM in collaboration with Sigma Chi Fraternity proudly present a screening of A Romance of the Air (1918) with live musical accompaniment by Emmett Scott ...

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First Friday

Join us this First Friday in June for an evening celebrating the region's moviemaking history! The Cayuga Museum is part of the Finger Lakes Film ...

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Behind the Scenes: Greystone Tour and Reception

Behind the Scenes: Greystone Tour and Reception Thursday, July 10
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM 106 Cayuga Heights Rd
Ithaca, NY 14850, USA Join Historic ...

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A Screening of “A Romance of the Air”

A new transportation show from The History Center; a newly-installed exhibit focused on planes, trains and trolleys in Wharton, Inc. Studio films curated by Wharton ...

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Silent Movie Month 2024

In 2012, City of Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick proclaimed October in Ithaca as Silent Movie Month, a month-long celebration of silent film and Ithaca’s role ...

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Party for the Park 2024

Join Wharton Studio Museum and Friends of Stewart Park for our 9th annual Party for the Park fundraiser! We’re celebrating our current Roaring 20s ...

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Take a Wharton Studio Museum Silent Film Tour

WSM film tour

WSM has created a Wharton Studio Silent Film Tour. This self-guided tour takes you to a number of Ithaca’s silent movie history locations, beginning with the historic Wharton Studio building in Stewart Park and on to Cornell University’s campus and then on to Upper Treman! It’s fun and informative! WSM thanks Randi Kepecs for her help in producing the tour.

WSM YouTube

WSM happily premieres its series of 60-second videos! We hope each one gives you a sense of Wharton Studio history and what WSM is doing to highlight it!

Here's Archelaus "Arch" Chadwick who designed and built elaborate sets for Wharton Studio's Beatrice Fairfax, The Great White Trail and Mysteries of Myra.

WSM thanks Ancient Wisdom Productions for its great work on this project!

WSM Blog: CineFiles

Wharton Studio Museum has a blog: CineFiles!

It's about film -- silent & otherwise -- local movie history -- local & otherwise -- and film culture today.

Be in the know about what's happening at Wharton Studio Museum.

What people are saying about Wharton Studio Museum

“The Wharton Studio Museum, under the intrepid leadership of Diana Riesman, has been a wonderful addition to Ithaca’s vibrant film scene, shining a light on the city’s fascinating silent film history. In addition to all the events and exhibits that WSM has presented to draw attention to this history, it has also regularly partnered with Cornell Cinema in the presentation of silent films with live musical accompaniment, with the mutual goal of introducing new audiences to the richness of the genre.”

– Mary Fessenden, Director, Cornell Cinema

“Ted and Leo Wharton were leading players in the exciting story of silent cinema in the 1910s. The remarkable work of the Wharton Studio Museum has been instrumental in making that story known and keeping it alive more than a century later. Film scholars and cinema enthusiasts alike are in the debt of WSM and its executive director Diana Riesman.”

– Barbara Tepa Lupack, New York State Historian and Public Scholar (2015-2018) & Fellow, Rockwell Center for American Visual Culture