Chris Craft to Speak at MassMu Brown Bag Lunch

Friday  |  May 8, 2015  |  17:14 PM

News Release:  Discover the Lasting Impact of the Civil War at the MassMu Brown Bag Lunch  

Civil War historian Chris Craft will talk about the enduring impact of the American Civil War at the Massillon Museum’s monthly Brown Bag Lunch on Tuesday, May 26, at 12:10 p.m. The program will conclude by 12:50 p.m. to accommodate those who wish to attend during the lunch hour. Brown Bag Lunch programs are free and open to everyone. Reservations are not required, but seats fill early.

Chris Craft, the Museum’s special projects coordinator and director of The Artful Living Program, is a graduate of the College of Wooster with an MA in education from the University of Akron. He came to the Massillon Museum after 31 years in secondary education at Fairless Schools. In addition to the Artful Living Program, Craft’s duties at the Museum include facilitating the History Discussion Group, curating the Museum’s exhibits relating to the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, and presenting as a member of the Museum’s Speakers Bureau.  

He has been involved in American Civil War living history since 1972 and was a consultant for the Canton Museum of Art’s 2011 Civil War exhibit, A House Divided, The Heartland Responds. He participated in the filming of several films about the Civil War and in two presidential inaugurations. In 2012, he narrated the Canton Symphony Orchestra’s Master Work Concert presentation of Aaron Copeland’s Lincoln Portrait. 

Craft recently retired as an adjunct faculty member at Malone University. As an artist, he has work in the collections of Kent State University, the First Ladies National Historic Site, and The White House. In 2012, Chris Craft was named to the Fairless High School “Wall of Honor.”

The Brown Bag Lunch program is part of the Museum’s four-year commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War in anticipation of the summer exhibition: Civil War-era Drawings from the Becker Collection.

Since its inception twelve years ago, the Brown Bag Lunch series has been sponsored by Bates Printing. Guests may bring carry-out or a sack lunch; purchase lunch from Anderson’s in the City—the lobby café; or simply enjoy a complimentary cookie and coffee provided by the Massillon Museum.    

The Brown Bag Lunch series usually features local history, an art or history topic related to the Museum, or a landmark event in the nation’s past. Programs are held on the fourth Tuesday of every month, January through October.  Schedules for the second half of the 2015 series will be distributed at the May program.

The Massillon Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East (Ohio 172) in downtown Massillon. For more information, call the Museum at 330-833-4061 or visit massillonmuseum.org.