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Faces of Rural America
The staff of the Massillon Museum is currently research two of its photography collections: Belle Johnson of Monroe City, Missouri and
Henry Clay Fleming of Ravenswood, West Virginia. Please follow the progress of the research online at the
Faces of Rural America website.
The Permanent Collection
The Museum’s collection and exhibition program reflect the varied interests
of a broad constituency. The mission is to offer a rich mix of history
and visual arts to people of all backgrounds and age groups. The Museum
is charged with collecting the best in local and regional art and collecting
and exhibiting local and regional historical artifacts. An estimated 95%
of the catalogued permanent collection consists of gifts from the community.
Therefore, there is a direct connection between the permanent collection
and the social, economic and cultural history of the community.
At this time the collection encompasses approximately 100,000 objects
in 94 categories. Included among the 94 categories are paintings and prints,
ceramics, glass, photographs, textiles, costumes, military artifacts,
city records, agricultural equipment, Native American objects, quilts,
books, musical instruments, medical equipment, furniture, toys, household
equipment, circus memorabilia, and many other items. The largest collections in the
Massillon Museum are photographs, household artifacts, costumes, china, glass, pottery and circus memorabilia.
The Museum's collection and exhibition program reflect the varied interests
of a broad constituency. The mission is to offer a rich mix of history
and visual arts to people of all backgrounds and age groups. The Museum
is charged with collecting the best in local and regional art and collecting
and exhibiting local and regional historical artifacts. An estimated 95%
of the catalogued permanent collection consists of gifts from the community.
Therefore, there is a direct connection between the permanent collection
and the social, economic and cultural history of the community.
Breathtaking glass objects in the collection are as diverse as signed Tiffany goblets, ancient Egyptian bottles, and Massillon glass paperweights and canes.
The Museum is home to 60,000 photographs, 18,000 archival and reference documents, 800 sets of salt and pepper shakers, 700 geological specimens, and fossils, 300 hats, 251 paintings, 210 toys and dolls, 55 weapons, 3 pianos, 2 steam engines, and 1 skeleton named Oscar.
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The Museum's barnraising photograph, taken by Theodore C. Teeple in the 1880s on the site of present-day Shady Hollow Country Club's clubhouse, has been used all over the world: murals in embassies and art centers, the cover of the national United Way annual report, re-enacted as a float in the Rose Bowl Parade, in textbooks of many languages, and as a poster promoting the U.S. Postal Service voluntarism stamp.
