Roberson Museum and Science Center, Permanent Exhibits

The exhibition Voices & Visions is a treasure chest of stories about our neighbors. Some of the people featured in this exhibit traveled long distances to settle here; others look back to ancestors who made similar journeys. Through Voices & Visions, their stories are told in words and embodied in pictures on paper, cloth or film. In this exhibit, we learn their tales through possessions carried in a suitcase from overseas, or objects created here according to traditions brought from home. No matter what form they take, these stories bear witness - lifting knowledge about our neighbor's lives into the light, where we can share them.

Whether they arrived hundreds of years ago or just last Tuesday, immigrants have always uprooted themselves for similar reasons. War, poverty, ethnic and religious persecution, and political oppression drive people from their old homes, dreams of peace, prosperity, security and freedom draw them elsewhere. Even when people flee on a moment's notice to save their lives, the decision to go is never simple. Immigrants leave behind a world where people, buildings, landscapes, language and culture are as familiar as the face in the mirror. Arriving here, they must quickly find a way to earn a living, often while wrestling with a language of their own. If they come from another country, they must adjust to a manner of life that is quite different from the America they knew through the distorted lens of the TV screen. They might face discrimination or suspicion from people who were here before them. They must wrestle with the age-old dilemma of immigration - how to gain the good this country has to offer without losing the riches of their native culture.

Even if you have lived here all your life, you also know what it is like to leave familiar surroundings for new, sometimes frightening, adventures. If you have ever quit the playpen for the schoolyard - if you have ever learned to walk or read, or stand up to a bully, or play on a team, you will find something very much like your own life in the stories of this diverse group of neighbors.

Voices & Visions highlights the life stories of local residents through narratives, photos, artifacts and folk-art. Portions of the gallery provide participatory activities and interactives that explore concepts of acceptance and respect. A small theater stocked with puppets allows children to act out ways to deal with name calling and bullying. In the "Goodbye to Bad Names" corner, children are invited to write down a hurtful or unkind name they have heard or have been called and trash it for good by feeding it through the paper shredder.

Edwin A. Link was an explored and experimenter all his life. His greatest contribution to aviation - the development of ground based flight training - made it possible to train large numbers of pilots safely and efficiently. Like other aviators of his day, Link helped to make the romance of flight a practical possibility for nearly everyone.

This relationship between the romance and the practicality of flight is explored in the exhibition "Edwin A. Link and the Air Age" at the Roberson Science Center.

The exhibition includes examples of pilots' clothing, early aircraft instruments, large scale model aircrafts, World War II posters and artifacts, and film footage from the Binghamton region in the nineteen twenties, thirties, and forties. It also includes interactive stations and games. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a recreation of a World War II era Link Trainer classroom, including an early Link instrument trainer - the Blue Box. Finally the exhibition challenges the visitor to examine his or her own relationship with the airplane, and with other forms of technology.

Local History Gallery
(Located on the third floor of the Roberson Mansion in the former ballroom)

Whether it be the community of our family, our community at work, or our community as a city, we have gone through some amazing transitions which have affected us as individuals and as a whole. Objects in this collection act as keys to the past, unlocking doors of history so we may have a better understanding of who we are. It allows us to experience the change in history and consequently the transformation in our personal lives.

The Local History Gallery is set up like a timeline, allowing visitors walking through to experience different stages in our development. Each era is color coded to help define it.

Hunter to Farmer: (green)
Prehistory:
• Based on archaeological research
• Evidence of prehistoric people and their patterns of existence found on the Roberson construction site and other areas of our community.

Clash of Cultures: (orange)
1600 - 1800
• Changes in Native American culture brought on by European settlers.
• Effects of land hunger and trade on the Native American culture.

Society, of Farmers, Artisans and Merchants: (tan)
1700 - 1800 (Post American Revolution)
• Settlement of Broome County.
• Economic development of Broome County
• Agriculture and lumbering grew rapidly (mention Roberson Lumber Company).

Industrial Revelation: (red)
Late 1800 to mid 1900
• Industrialization begins in Broome County.
• Canals and railroads develop integrating Broome County into national economy.
• Changing labor force (Immigration)

The Big Change: (blue)
Early 1940 to 1970
• Socio-economic impact of changing industrial and agriculture base.
• Heavy industry replaced by hi-tech industries, altering the culture and economic makeup of Broome County.

Explore our past by viewing the displays in this gallery.

In 1779, George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Colonial Army, ordered Generals John Sullivan and James Clinton to invade Iroquois territory in New York State. Although it saw only one pitched battle – the Battle of Newtown near Elmira – this scorched-earth campaign against Native American villages and crops led to the Iroquois Confederacy’s decline in power and the loss of the lands of the Six Nations.

This Little Critters exhibit features "downy young" birds from the Loomis collection of approximately 4,000 specimens. Also on exhibit are very young mammals including deer, cougar, skunk, woodchuck and an adult pygmy shrew.