Brown Bag Lunch Features “The Age of Innocence”

Brown Bag Lunch Features “The Age of Innocence”


Bring a sack lunch or purchase lunch from the Chit Chat Coffee Shop for the Massillon Museum’s next Brown Bag Lunch on Tuesday, March 24. Christine Fowler Shearer, Executive Director of the Massillon Museum, will speak about this year’s book selection for The Big Read—The Age of Innocence—and how it relates to Massillon’s era of greatest wealth and the legacy left by its most prominent families for the permanent collections of the Massillon Museum.

Shearer’s program will highlight the success of Massillon’s industrial and financial leaders during The Gilded Age, when Russell and Company was shipping steam engines across the nation, the Bucher Opera House was drawing leading national orators and musicians, and Fourth Street families were hosting dinners and balls and wedding receptions for hundreds of socialites. She will relate the Victorian era in Massillon to the characters and events in Edith Wharton’s novel, The Age of Innocence.

The Brown Bag Lunch, which is held in the Museum lobby, is free and open to the public; no reservations are required, but seats fill early.


Guests are invited to visit the Museum's Victorian displays in the second floor permanent collection gallery and in the lower level. Both have been installed in conjunction with The Big Read and its focus on the late nineteenth century.

Bates Printing sponsors the Brown Bag Lunch series, which is in its seventh year. In conjunction with the next main gallery exhibition, “Lewis Hine: Rise of a Landmark,” Michael Lasser will present April’s program: “The Hip-Hooray and Bally-Hoo: Popular Music’s Take on New York.” Massillon Police Captain Joe Herrick will present “CSI Massillon: Unsolved Murders” in May.

The Big Read is a month-long celebration of The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, funded by a competitive grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. 2009 marks the second year the National Endowment for the Arts has granted funding for the Massillon Museum’s ambitious participation in The Big Read—a national initiative to help Americans return to reading for leisure.

The Big Read, the largest federal literature program since the W.P.A., is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents the Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest.

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.


Media Contacts:
Christine Shearer, Massillon Museum Director - 330-833-4061
Margy Vogt, Massillon Museum PR Coordinator & Lunch Series Chair - 330-832-8469 or 330-844-1525