Victorian Salon Features Historical Characters

Massillon Museum’s Victorian Salon Features Historical Characters

Step into The Gilded Age for just one night on Sunday, March 22. Visit Massillon’s finest Victorian mansion, Five Oaks, for “Edith Wharton’s Salon,” where guests will mingle with famous 19th-century artists, writers, and political leaders. The event is part of the Massillon Museum’s project, “The Big Read: Western Stark County Reads The Age of Innocence.”

At the salon, which opens at 6:00 pm., Olivia Langdon Clemens (Jill Malusky Bacon) will share some of Mark Twain’s witticisms. Alex Nicholis will portray photographer Belle Johnson and Chris Craft will be John Singer Sargent for the night. Sandi Thouvenin will bring to life author Virginia Wolfe, and Mandy Pond will impersonate Massillon’s suffrage leader Caroline McCullough Everhard. With such an illustrious guest list, other literary figures are sure to show up.

The salon is open to everyone. Victorian costumes and characters are encouraged, but participants are always welcome to attend Museum events wearing appropriate contemporary attire. The $5 fee includes light refreshments. Advance reservations—requested but not required—may be made by calling the Massillon Museum at 330-833-4061 or emailing info@massillonmuseum.org. The Museum accepts cash, checks, Visa, and Mastercard.

Five Oaks, now the home of the Massillon Woman’s Club, was the local epitome of the Victorian lifestyle depicted in The Age of Innocence. Its extravagant woodwork, Tiffany appointments, gold leaf wall designs, and period furnishings will create an ambiance reminiscent of social settings in The Age of Innocence. The early 1890s-era mansion is located at 210 Fourth Street Northeast in Massillon.

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. Massillon Rotary Foundation has provided additional funding to purchase copies of the book for classroom use. 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.

For more information about western Stark County’s Big Read project, call the Massillon Museum at 330-833-4061 or visit www.massillonmuseum.org or www.NEABigRead.org.

Media Contacts:

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

Margy Vogt - Massillon Museum PR Coordinator - 330-832-8469 or 330-844-1525