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CIVIL WAR READER'S THEATER: Dr. Bradley Keefer of Kent State Ashtabula will share his findings surrounding the debates that took place on the pages of The Democrat & The Repository during the war.
Dr. Bradley Keefer, Associate Professor of History at Kent State University at Ashtabula, will utilize a living history style event to recreate the political and ideological disputes between newspapers in Canton, Ohio during the Civil War. His research on this topic was included as a chapter in the book Lesser Civil Wars: Civilians Defining War and the Memory of War edited by Marsha Robinson. A copy of this chapter can be reviewed in advance of the program in the MPL Local History & Genealogy Department.
Registration required.
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Massillon Local History and Genealogy Society | History | Educational |
In 1897, local public servant and storekeeper George Harsh willed $10,000 for “public library purposes.” The funds purchased nearly 10,000 volumes for Massillon’s first public library. Also in 1897, J.W. McClymonds announced his gift of an endowment of $20,000 for a library. The Russell sisters, Flora and Annie, who married the McClymonds brothers, donated the Nahum S. Russell home, located on Prospect Street (now Fourth Street NE), in memory of their parents. The McClymonds Public Library opened on January 1, 1899, and was funded by private subscriptions and an annual disbursement of city funds. In 1922, the McClymonds Public Library became the Massillon City School District Library and was now funded by tax revenue.
In 1930, Annie Steese Baldwin willed her home “as the site for a new public library.” Built around 1835, the brick home overlooking downtown Massillon from Hill Street (now Second Street NE) was first the residence of the city’s founder, James Duncan.
The current Massillon Public Library (Main Location), located at the corner of Lincoln Way East and Second Street NE, opened in 1937. Designed by Albrecht & Wilhelm and funded in part by a Works Progress Administration grant, the Duncan/Baldwin home was connected by a Jeffersonian portico and rotunda to a west wing Reading Room and Children’s Room. The Massillon Museum was also housed at this location until 1996 when it moved to its present location at 121 Lincoln Way East.
