UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The third in a series of fall open houses at Penn State's Pasto Agricultural Museum will be an "Early Extension Movies Matinee."
The films will start at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28.
Fans of old films and early farm life -- and people who are interested in film production -- will want to see the Pasto Museum film fest that marks 100 years of Cooperative Extension, according to Rita Graef, Pasto Museum curator.
"Silent and black-and-white films and film clips will display early cinematic techniques and demonstrate how humor was incorporated with the content to highlight the 'new' technology on the farm and in the home," she said. "The films were shown to rural families in the early part of the 20th century and today give a glimpse of life during that time period."
Following the films, Jan Scholl, an extension 4-H curriculum specialist and associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education, will lead a short presentation and answer questions about how Cooperative Extension began as a University outreach initiative that continues today.
Scholl has published many articles on the history of Cooperative Extension, and she was the first American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Centennial Scholar.
Operated by Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, the museum is welcoming visitors every Sunday afternoon during Penn State home football weekends as part of an initiative to increase public awareness of the museum's collection.
Other open houses will feature the following themes:
-- Oct. 26: Fabulous Fibers (spin, weave, sew, quilt).
-- Nov. 2: Forest and Trees (wood and timber).
-- Nov. 16: WILD! (with a special exhibit from the Ecosystem Science and Management Department's bird and mammal collection).
--Nov. 30: Annual Celebration and Ice Cream Social.
Graef said the open houses will help the public appreciate the time when energy for work was supplied by the power of humans and animals.
"By seeing and touching tools and equipment used in early agriculture and rural life, people will better understand how early technological developments led to modern-day advancements," she said.
More information on the museum and its open houses is available online.To receive information and event reminders via email, send a message to PastoAgMuseum@psu.edu. Graef can be reached at 814-863-1383 or by email at rsg7@psu.edu.
Located on the Ag Progress Days site at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs -- 9 miles southwest of State College on Route 45 -- the museum features hundreds of rare farm and home implements from the "muscle-power era," before the advent of electricity and gasoline-powered engines.