Hello and welcome to Put Down The Tablet! The column where I find local fun with my daughter Josie while we leave our devices on the charger. May was an exciting month as Josie and I took a quick trip to Fort Worth, Texas for her cousin’s wedding! It was our first time in the Longhorn State and it’s always fun to experience new things through the eyes of your child. We also planted sunflower seeds in our garden and have seen two movies in the theater. But our main attraction this month is a trip to State Street in Binghamton to visit the historic Roberson Museum!
Built in the early 1900’s by prominent local businessman Alonzo Roberson Jr. and transformed into a museum in the 1950’s, the mansion has been a staple of the Binghamton downtown scene for over a century. With a slew of expansions since the 1970’s, the current space houses permanent local history exhibits, art exhibition spaces and provides a great window into Broome County’s past while encouraging student learning for the future.
Our first discovery was the Heritage Gallery, which houses a huge model train set that recreates the Southern Tier from the 1950’s. We had fun learning about the history of all our local communities as well as trying to locate our Johnson City house on the model. Our next stop was Roberson’s “Miniatures” exhibit and Josie was in awe of the amazing details inside the six foot tall dollhouse that was the centerpiece of the display.
We next ventured to the Dickinson Gallery which currently holds two exhibits culled from Roberson’s robust archives. This was the first time Josie saw an artist's work displayed in an exhibition and she was amazed at the size of the pieces created by the late Binghamton University professor Angelo Ippolito.
Roberson’s permanent display of Nature Trek is an exploration of the natural world we live in with the over 150 mounted specimens on display in this area. We sometimes take for granted that we live in such a rich natural environment and this exhibit puts the Southern Tier’s beauty front and center. We next blasted off to the museum’s second floor and landed in their Space Rocks exhibit, which puts you right in the middle of a meteor!
For our last mission, we time traveled from the future of outer space back to Roberson’s past as we toured a recreation of the mansion as it was 100 years ago. We were impressed with the regal staircase and stained glass windows and Josie listened extra hard to hear the spirits that are rumored to be roaming the halls of the mansion. I also made a point to show her that children of the mansion had no tablets to play with.
I was a bit skeptical of Josie’s reaction to the Roberson Museum but she had a really fun time learning about the region’s history and investigating amazing artwork. With summer vacation approaching, please visit roberson.org for a complete list of the museum’s exhibitions as well as student summer programs available! Roberson Museum is located at 30 Front Street in Binghamton.
