Drawing on Cornell’s collection of plaster casts after classical art—the brainchild of Andrew Dickson White—this exhibition marks Cornell’s Sesquicentennial by returning to the University’s deep roots in teaching from objects. It examines the origins of cast making, the early use of casts in drawing academies, and the nineteenth-century phenomenon of assembling casts for study and appreciation, questioning the understanding of “original” and “copy” within the museum context. Cast and Present will allow visitors a renewed opportunity to envision Cornell’s cast “museums” of yesteryear, all the while asserting their ongoing value as learning tools in the digital age.