The Massillon Museum’s 1916 Russell traction steam engine has returned to MassMu’s garden area on City Hall Street Southeast and can be seen at any time. The big, bold black, red, and yellow machine has returned from its off-season storage site, where it is protected from winter weather.

 

The model logo—“The Boss”—and the Russell and Company logo are both hand-painted on the engine. 

 

The largest object in the Museum’s permanent collection, the engine weighs three tons and can produce 12 horsepower. Russell and Company manufactured more than 17,000 steam engines as well as 22,000 threshing machines, 16,000 boilers, and 5,000 sawmills. The large brick main factory building still stands about a mile from the Museum on South Erie Street. 

 

Russell and Company, incorporated in 1842, reached its pinnacle as Massillon’s largest employer during the 1890s and early 1900s. During those decades, company agents introduced Massillon to the world by selling equipment in places as distant as Germany, Russia, South America, Australia, and New Zealand. The final auction was held in 1927.

 

Seven Russell brothers were associated with the company. Among the legacies of the Russell family, are the Thomas and Ellen Russell residence and the Nahum and Esther Russell home, which still stand on historic Fourth Street. Nahum Russell was the corporation’s first president.  He and Esther Russell’s daughter Flora and her husband Walter McClymonds—second company president—built the Five Oaks mansion, home of the Massillon Woman’s Club.

  

Inside MassMu, visitors can discover more treasures—a Jewel automobile manufactured in Massillon inn 1907; glass canes blown at the end of the day with leftover glass in local beer bottle factories; Coach Paul Brown’s Hall of Fame gold jacket; a large Lego model of Paul Brown Tiger stadium; a hippopotamus hide and silver shield carried in 19th-century battles in Abyssinia; world—renowned photography; the Immel Circus; contemporary art galleries; and much more.

 

The Massillon Museum receives operating support from the Ohio Arts Council, ArtsinStark, and the citizens of Massillon, as well as marketing support from Visit Canton. Exhibitions are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

The Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East (Ohio Route 172) in downtown Massillon. A visit to the Massillon Museum is always free. For more information, call the Museum at 330-833-4061 or visit massillonmuseum.org.