FERRISBURGH — Rokeby Museum in Ferrisburgh will open its new Education Center and exhibit on Sunday, May 19, at 2 p.m. The ribbon cutting celebrates a decade of planning and fundraising for the $1.2 million project. The center provides much-needed facilities, including rest rooms and meeting space, and houses the new 2,500-square-foot exhibit, “Free & Safe: The Underground Railroad in Vermont.”
“Free & Safe” introduces visitors to Simon and Jesse — two fugitives from slavery who found shelter at Rokeby in the 1830s. The exhibit traces their stories from slavery to freedom, introduces the abolitionist Robinson family who called Rokeby home for nearly 200 years, and explores the turbulent decades leading up to the Civil War.
Employing audio and lighting effects and museum theater, “Free & Safe” will educate, engage and challenge young and old, Vermonters and visitors, black and white. When it opens, says Museum Director Jane Williamson, there will be nothing else like it in the Northeast.
Rokeby Museum is a National Historic Landmark that connects visitors with the human experience of the Underground Railroad and with the Robinson family, who lived on and farmed the Rokeby land for nearly 200 years.
For more information, contact Williamson at [email protected] or 802-877-3406.