MassMu Features Politics, Pantaloons, and Protest Marches

Tuesday  |  February 10, 2015  |  14:44 PM

News Release—MassMu Features Politics, Pantaloons, and Protest Marches

The Massillon Museum’s exhibition, Politics, Pantaloons, and Protest Marches, depicts some of the leaders and issues that have touched Massillon’s 188-year history. 

An oil portrait of Massillon’s first mayor, Samuel Pease, greets guests as they enter the second-floor gallery.  A sepia photograph represents Robert Folger, the town’s second and third mayor—terms were only one year in the early days. A telegram informs M.P.L. Kirchhofer that he is to assume the duties of mayor as Herbert H. Vogt has been removed from that office. Mayor Junie Weirich is shown in a photograph seated with Lillian Gish at the dedication of the Lincoln Way Viaduct. Posters remind visitors of Mark Ross’s more recent successful campaign for the mayor’s office.

Women’s milestones in the exhibition include photographs of local women—Essie Wooten, the first female and the first African American to serve on Massillon City Council; Caroline McCullough Everhard, a leader in Ohio women’s struggle for suffrage; and Victoria Woodhull, who notoriously ran for President in 1872.  A broadside advertising Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s 1875 appearance at Massillon’s Opera House and a “votes for women” sash tie the local struggle for equality to the national movement.

A stand-out figure in Massillon’s past, Jacob Coxey ran for eleven political offices (including President) on six different tickets, but he is featured in this exhibition for his most famous campaign, his1894 march of unemployed men from Massillon to Washington D.C., the nation’s first protest march. Nods to other national figures include images of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and Herbert Hoover.  Ralph Cornell’s invitation to Dwight David Eisenhower’s inaugural ball is displayed.

Politics, Pantaloons, and Protest Marches may be seen during regular Museum hours—Tuesday through Saturday 9:30 to 5:00 and Sunday 2:00 to 5:00—through May 24.  A visit to the Massillon Museum is always free.

Visitors can also see the Ninth Annual Ohio Collage Society Exhibition; an exhibition of Published and Unpublished Illustrations by Sean Qualls, a Brooklyn-based children’s book illustrator, artist, and author; The Immel Circus; the century-old Jewel automobile; It’s Been Awhile; Paul Brown: The Professional Years; and Massillon and the War of the Rebellion: Women and the War. 

The Massillon Museum receives operating support from the Ohio Arts Council and ArtsinStark.

The Massillon Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East in downtown Massillon. Free parking is available on adjacent streets and in nearby city lots. For more information, call 330.833.4061 or visit massillonmuseum.org.