Organized by and traveling under the auspices of George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film.

Click here for information about our "Build Your Own Landmark" Photo Competition

The George Eastman House exhibition, “The Rise of a Landmark: Lewis Hine and the Empire State Building,” will be displayed in the Massillon Museum’s main gallery from April 18 through August 2, 2009. The exhibition will open with a free public reception on Saturday, April 18, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. No reservations are necessary.

The exhibition of more than 50 black and white images by photographer Lewis Wickes Hine chronicles the entire construction of the Empire State Building in New York City. The project, which included a total of more than 1,000 photographs taken by Hine during the year-long construction (1930–1931), were meant to remind viewers that buildings and the cities that they shape are built only with the direction and innovation of humankind.

This exhibition is drawn entirely from the Eastman House’s photographic collection in Rochester, New York, which contains nearly 10,000 of Hine’s original photographs, negatives, and artifacts. The Hine collection, which was given to the Eastman House in 1955 by the Photo League of New York, is the world’s largest holding of his work. The images in the exhibition are modern gelatin silver prints made from copy negatives.

Born in 1874 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Hine was a sociologist whose photographs captured his abiding concern for immigrants and working-class people. Early in his career, he documented the newly arrived immigrants at Ellis Island and worked for the National Child Labor Committee as an investigator and photographer studying children working in sweatshops, canneries, coal mines, and cotton mills. After World War I, as America became infatuated with modern machinery, Hine began to photograph men and women at work in the newly mechanized environment, thus emphasizing the human side of modern technology.

“We are particularly pleased to present this exhibition because it emphasizes the Massillon Museum’s own very strong photography collection as well as the legacy of Massillon’s legendary steel industry,” said Massillon Museum Curator Alexandra Nicholis, who is organizing the traveling collection’s exhibition in Massillon. “In fact,” she said, “stainless steel from the Massillon plant of Republic Steel was used in the construction of the Empire State Building.”

A number of events between April and July will augment the exhibition itself. On April 28, author Michael Lasser will present a free lecture, “The Hip-Hooray and Bally-Hoo: Popular Music’s Take on New York City,” at the Massillon Museum’s Brown Bag Lunch at noon and again at Kent State University Stark Campus Main Hall Auditorium in the evening. On June 6, at the Massillon Museum’s monthly free “Do the Mu!” time, families will learn about architecture with architect Don Allcorn and build their own structures. Margy Vogt will lead an afternoon workshop, “Photographing Massillon’s Architectural Treasures: History and Composition Class,” on July 11. Curator Alexandra Nicholis will present a free gallery talk on July 19.

The Museum’s Education Department of the Museum has added an interactive component to the exhibition. Click here to learn more about Building Your Own Landmark! The second-floor Photography Gallery will include related images from the Museum’s permanent collection such as the “Rohr Barnraising” and local steel industry photos.

On Saturday, April 18, visitors can enjoy two additional exhibitions, which will open concurrently with “The Rise of a Landmark.” On the Museum’s second floor, the “Jody Hawk: Local Allegories, Stories of Massillon” exhibition will open. In the Fred F. Silk Community Room in the lower level, the Studio M exhibition, “Image to Image,” photographs by Walsh University digital photojournalism students will also open. Visitors will be encouraged to meet Hawk and the Walsh students and to view their work.

The Massillon Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East (Ohio Route 172) in the heart of downtown Massillon. For more information, contact the Museum at 330-833-4061 or visit www.massillonmuseum.org. The Massillon Museum is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. A visit to the Massillon Museum is always free.