The Museum of Innovation and Science has stood in the City of Schenectady for more than five decades. The building is showing its age, and significant upgrades are needed to ensure its valuable and unique collection, with troves of artifacts that showcase the history of the city and General Electric, are preserved.
The New York State budget passed in April includes $10 million in funding to support miSci. The money, secured by Democratic State Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara, will address critical infrastructure and upgrades identified in an engineering report.
Santabarbara, an engineer-by-trade, served on a task force that included museum and local government leaders that in March announced the plan to keep miSci in Schenectady. The state funding now makes the upgrades possible.
WAMC’s Lucas Willard joined Santabarbara and miSci Vice President of Collections and Exhibitions Chris Hunter for a tour of the museum to see the parts that are off-limits or unnoticed by the general public...
“So, some of the highlights that we have here, we have, for instance, Thomas Edison’s final lighting patent. And it’s really items that can be used tell a story…”
Chris Hunter stands in a basement-level archive of miSci that contains rows of shelves that contain millions of documents, photos, films, and more that tell the history of the Electric City and its pioneering industry.
But the overstuffed archive is not just out of space, it’s also under threat of damaging high humidity and, although it hasn’t happened yet, possible flooding, explains Santabarbara...
“Imagine your own house. When there’s water, when there’s a leak, it all goes to the basement. Eventually, it’s all going to get down there and this is where these are stored. So, we are planning to get this to a higher elevation where they’ll be much safer from any sort of problem that could occur, potentially,” said Santabarbara.
But while the archive is impressive, there’s more to see on this tour. We walk down the hallway as Santabarbara points out a crack in concrete the floor.
“I’m gonna pretend I know where I'm going here. And if I remember correctly…I think it’s down here…So, one of the things we noticed, so one of the issues of concern is, is what you see here, the beginnings of this concrete cracking. I think there was some, we're not sure exactly what caused it, but as you get around here, you can see a little more severe separation…”
In a storage room underneath the main exhibit hall, with shelves packed with century-old scientific equipment, more cracks…
“The museum has a desire to fix this. And there's a number of ways to do that. There are engineering methods to fix this down here. It can be done. The issue is, of course, can you do it with all the sensitive items around it?” said Santabarbara.
“I was just going to point that out, Angelo, because we're sitting on the ground right now. There's a crack in front of your foot. And then there's a shelf with all kinds of historic instruments right behind you.”
“Exactly. And some of these are glass and you'll see on the other side, there’s glass tubes that are very fragile. But they're historical pieces. So, we don't, you know…drilling down into this concrete, making dust and a number of other disturbances down here with these items, these historical items and artifacts, in the vicinity, is not going to be possible. So, we're going to have to move a lot of these to a different location, whether that's temporary, or to a permanent location,” said Santabarbara.
It’s hard not to get distracted by the objects in the basement. The Assemblyman pauses to look at the first camera used by TV station WRGB, one of the nation’s first.
“Oh wow look at this thing, it looks like a motorcycle. A scooter, huh? Look at this. Actually, it was. You probably sit on it. You sit up here?”
“Oh, yeah. Somebody sat operating the camera. They had somebody else sitting there giving directions and then a third person moving the cart,” said Hunter.
“So, you get a flavor for the artifacts,” said Santabarbara.
Back pointing out the problems that need fixing.
“Like a Willy Wonka factory. And now, this room!”
The museum’s ventilation system dates back to this building’s construction in the late ‘60s. It’s noisy and fills the utility room.
“So, we have an opportunity to make an upgrade and do it right, and do something that will last for a very long time, will meet the needs of the museum in whatever temperature control, environment controls they need in specific rooms. This will likely not be able to handle that, for a number of reasons. It works, but again, there’s better, modern equipment that’s likely much, much smaller than this, too,” said Santabarbara.
“This is larger than an SUV, this system here.”
“It’s bigger than a car. It’s bigger than a truck, I think. Yeah, this is the size of a small truck,” said Santabarbara.
“And the other thing that happens with these now, being from 1969, a part breaks in them and to get a replacement part, somebody has to custom machine it,” said Hunter.
“So, this is a big piece of it,” said Santabarbara.”
Santabarbara points out issues that need fixing inside and outside the structure. We go back upstairs, through the exhibit hall, and onto the loading dock – which also contains a small workshop.
“So, one of the issues with the loading dock, obviously, these exhibits come in and out of here, and they move, and you bring them to different places and you receive different exhibits. This, if you look at this space out here, these come on 18-wheelers, tractor trailers. To get the right angle to back up against this dock, so you can be perpendicular to it, which is what you want to get to, there’s not enough space to do that. So, what happens is it comes in at an angle, you have to form some sort of bridge, it’s very difficult.
“Yeah, because the parking lot comes down at a curve, and there’s just woods and trees right behind it.”
“Exactly. But what we see, as part of this project, is an opportunity to expand this, go into that bank, create some more parking,” said Santabarbara.
We even tour an aging, yellow-tiled bathroom.
“It’s definitely got a 70s look to it. I don't know when this was built, but it needs to be more accessible. The door, itself, stall having handicap accessibility, accessibility component to this, and just modernizing. You can see the sinks…everything is just from…”
“Another time.”
“Yeah. Another time,” said Santabarbara.
Perhaps the star of miSci is the planetarium, which offers indoor star shows under a dome – very popular with school kids. The planetarium’s projector, a rare and expensive item on its own, is also in need of upgrades.
“As you can see, it's a very unique item. All these specialized cameras. Each one of these cameras projects out an image. And, you know, it's not like the movie theater. This is an arched screen. And it's able to do things that you can't find anywhere else. You can't see this in movie theaters, you know, you can't have an experience like this. This is something unique to a museum setting. And it's unique, here, in Schenectady. We have one of 12 of these, and getting this upgraded, getting those new shows in here, that's a big attraction. And people come a long distance to come experience this,” said Santabarbara.
“Pretty much. This is the only planetarium for 150 miles, pretty much, in any direction,” said Hunter.
“Yeah, I didn't realize how unique it was until we started talking about,” said Santabarbara. “I figured, okay, there's one, you can buy these anywhere and just put them up but you can't, you can't. And then you have to have the proper screen, the setting…”
With limitations from its age and infrastructure, Santabarbara wants miSci to become an even larger destination. From its location on a hill overlooking the Electric City’s revitalized downtown, the Assemblyman sees an all hands-on-deck rescue for Schenectady’s science museum now in motion.
“The $10 million in the state budget that I was able to secure was obviously a big, a big step and a big win for what we're trying to do here. And I think it's a big win for the city, because it means that we do, miSci does have a future here. And it's going to be a very bright future. And it's going to keep those resources and opportunities right here where they belong in the City of Schenectady,” said Santabarbara.
