Brown Bag Features 19th-Century Medicine

MassMu Brown Bag Features 19th-Century Medicine

Matt Lautzenheiser, Director of the Dover Historical Society and J.E. Reeves Home, will speak on Tuesday, February 24, at the Massillon Museum’s Brown Bag Lunch.

The program, “Lancets, Leeches, and Laudanum: A Short History of Medicine in 19th-Century Ohio,” will focus on alternative medicines, common cures, and remedies used during the 1800s in Northeast Ohio. He will discuss early medical training and will cover some early phyicians of Stark County.

Lautzenheiser, a native of Dover, Ohio, has served as the director of the local historical society and J.E. Reeves Victorian Home since 2005. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hiram College and a Master of Arts from the University of Akron. While at Akron, he worked part-time at Hale Farm and Village as an interpreter. After graduation, he joined Hale Farm in a full-time capacity as the site’s historian.

Lautzenheiser has introduced new programs and events to the Dover Historical Society including the “Moonlight Picnic and Wine Tasting,” an Oktoberfest, a lecture series, and a living history program—”Backdoors and Backstairs: A Visit with the Reeves Housekeeper.” He is currently working on a book for Arcadia Press under their Images of America Series. The book will be a photographic history of Dover. Matt lives in Nimishellen Township, Stark County, with his wife Kelly and two sons.

Brown Bag guests may bring a sack lunch or purchase lunch from the Chit Chat Coffee Shop in the lobby of the Museum. The Museum will serve free cookies and coffee.

The program will begin promptly at 12:10 p.m. and conclude about 12:50 p.m. to accommodate guests who attend during the lunch hour.

The event, which is held in the Museum lobby, is free and open to the public; no reservations are required, but seats fill early. The Massillon Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East in downtown Massillon. For more information, call the Massillon Museum at 330-833-4061 or visit www.massillonmuseum.org.

Bates Printing sponsors the Brown Bag Lunch series, which is in its seventh year. Schedules for the first half of the 2009 series will be available at the event.

Media Contacts:

Christine Shearer, Massillon Museum Director - 330-833-4061

Margy Vogt, Museum Public Relations & Lunch Series Chair - 330-832-8469 or 330-844-1525