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The Complete Chautauquan

The Chautauqua Movement

By Jeffrey Scott Maxwell


The Lyceum and Chautauqua Movements: 19th Century Lecture Tours to 21st Century Humanities Events

I. Introduction.

My name is Jeffrey Maxwell, and I have made it my avocation to learn about the lyceum and chautauqua movements of the 19th and 20th Centuries and their long-lasting effects on modern American society into the 21st Century. I think this is important work, and It gives me great pleasure to share some of the information I have collected with other interested parties on the Internet. I am not a lecturer, but I have worked at being an essayist. I say that mostly because it is a hint to the answer of the first question I am going to ask you.

I. A. Literature in 19th Century America.

By way of introduction to the topic of lyceum, I think will go ahead and ask the question. It might, in fact, seem somewhat removed from the subject. The category is "19th Century American Literature." What would you say was the most important form of literature in the United States during the 19th Century. a. Novel? b. Short story? c. Poetry? d. Essay? Essay. Most people would say essay. And I would agree with themif the question were "What is the most important form of American literature that came FROM the 19th Century?" But the question was, "What was the most important form of literature DURING the 19th Century?" I would argued that the answer is, not the essay, but, instead, the lecture.

I. B. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essayist and Lecturer.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a very famous essayist. In fact, some might say that he is the greatest essayist of the American cannon. In pre-Civil War America, Emerson was actually probably better known as a lecturer. In fact, many, even most, of his essays actually evolved from Lyceum lectures. It was said that Emerson was an essayist because he was a lecturer, not a lecturer because he was an essayist. It was also said, as I have read recently, that Emerson was the greatest adornment of the lyceum movement. I guess you could say that he was lyceum’s "poster child."

II. The Lyceum Movement of the 19th Century.

II. A. The Start of the Lyceum.

The Lyceum started in the 19th Century in the Tradition of the Town Hall Meetings of the previous decade. People were used to coming together to when important decisions were to be made, or sometimes to share news. But with the Lyceum, people would come together to share in opportunities of self improvement and community development.

II. A. 1. Origin of the Name "Lyceum."

Lyceum is a term that was borrowed from the name of the garden of the Temple of Apollo Lyceus, a place where Aristotle taught young Athenians. If you were a boy in Greece, in about 300-something B.C., the Lyceum was the place to be. It’s where you would hang out.

II. A. 2. Josiah Holbrook, Educator.

Fast forward about 2000 years or so to about the year 1826 -- a point in time when an educator by the name of Josiah Holbrook had been teaching textile workers various science and mechanics skills for the previous 30 or so years.

II. A. 3. The First Lyceum in Milbury Mass in 1826.

At this time Holbrook organized the first Lyceum in Milbury Massachusetts to coordinate the adult training of the members of the Mechanics Institutes.

II. B. 1826-1840: The Developments in the Lyceum Movement.

II. B. 1. Factors in the growth of the Lyceum Movement.

In the next years the lyceum movement grew across the nation along with the Erie Canal.

II. B. 2. A change in topics.

Along with the growth of lyceum came a change in the subject matter. By 1840 the subject of lyceum lectures had changed from being primarily science and mechanics to being primarily subjects of literature and culture.

II. B. 3. The change in motivation of adult education from one of economics to one of self improvement.

This was an important time in adult education, because up until this point, the purpose of education for adults was solely to develop one’s work skills or otherwise improve an individual’s ability to provide for his family. It is also important to note that, by this time, women had been allowed to attend most lyceum events.

II. B. 4. An Attempt to Organize.

II. C. 1840-1857: Growth in the Lyceum Movement.

Lyceum saw its biggest growth in the years between the early 1840s to the late 1850s.

II. C. 1. Expansion into the West and South.

In fact Lyceum even spread to the West where it would flourish in Ohio and Illinois. But in the South, lyceum never did take off, because it was in the best interest of those in charge to suppress any kind of movement in education that might enable the education of poor whites and slaves and upset the slave-based economy.

II. C. 2. Pre-Civil War platform performers.

II. C. 3. The depression and Civil War.

In 1857 a major depression hit the United States, and by the time most of the lyceum groups could have recovered from the depression, the Civil War had begun.

II. D. The Post Civil War Era of Lyceum

After a break during the Civil War, some lectures were scheduled by individual lyceum groups in the late 1860s. A person who had listened to a lecture given by Charles Dickens one night overheard the speaker complaining about the treatment that he had received during his time in America was a man by the name of James Redpath. Problems with transportation, room and board, expenses and other issues had plagued the speaker, and Redpath saw a way that he could fix some of those problems. So in the fall of 1868 he formed an agency in Boston known as the Redpath Lyceum Bureau which would become and remain the most prominent and financially successful of all the lyceum bureaus. Redpath had been a war correspondent for the New York Tribune so he already had a name that was known among the lyceum committees. By 1871 Redpath had opened a district office in Chicago, due to great demand for platform programs in the Midwest. In 1875 Redpath sold the Redpath Lyceum Bureau to George Hathaway who owned it until 1903, when it became and investment corporation with several divisions. Two other important lyceum agencies were formed shortly after Redpath started in the business, they were the Williams Lyceum and Musical Bureau and the Midland Lyceum Bureau. By the beginning of the 20th Century there were 12 different lyceum agencies

II. D. 1. Performers of the second lyceum era.

II. D. 2. Individual Lyceum committees and contracts with platform performers.

II. D. 3. James Redpath and the Lyceum Bureaus.

II. D. 4. The addition of the Chicago district office and sale of the Redpath Bureau.

III. The Church Camp Meetings and Summer Assemblies.

No study of the history of chautauqua would be complete without at least a peripheral understanding of the lyceum movement. However, a second part of the events leading to the beginning of chautauqua must also be studied, at least briefly, to have a complete understanding of what was chautauqua. That second part is the camp meeting. Around the beginning of the 19th Century a religious revival came across the nation, and this manifested itself largely in the form of the Protestant Christian camp meetings that flourished in the United States. In the south, the camp meetings were a common part of the life of the Baptists, and in the North, the Methodists made good use of the camp meeting idea.

III. A. The Revival of Religion in America the late 18th and early 19th Centuries.

III. B. The Regional Influences of the camp meeting.

III. B. 1. The Baptists of the South.

III. B. 2. The Methodists of the North.

III. C. Religious Resorts: The Growth in Camp Meetings in the 19th Century.

III. D. The Camp Meeting at North Point, New York, on the edge of the Chautauqua Lake.

III. E. The Methodist Sunday School Movement.

IV. Development of the Chautauqua Institution.

One such camp meeting took place each summer on the north shore of Lake Chautauqua in a resort town called North Pointe in the Western-most county of New York. A man by the name of John Heyl Vincent was really into these camp meetings, and he had a vision that the one he went to at Lake Chautauqua each year could develop into something quite good. This was around the time that the Sunday school movement was becoming popular, something that most Protestant denominations practice today. Vincent began in 1870 to develop an idea for a summer training program for Sunday school teachers, which would include training in Bible literature, history, geography and all the things that might be useful in the Sunday school classroom.

In 1874, Vincent, with the financial help of a manufacturer by the name of Lewis Miller, implemented the summer training camp for Sunday school teachers there that would develop into what would become known as the Chautauqua Institute. This was the first chautauqua. In just a couple of years the training sessions grew from a having a few dozen to a few hundred people in attendance. By the late 1870s Dr. Vincent thought it would be good to fill the idle time of the campers between bible study and Sunday school workshops with something "constructive" to do. The institution contracted with the lyceum bureaus for many of the people who would speak or perform at Chautauqua, New York. In time, the topics at Chautauqua became more mainstream, but the Institution managed to retain many of its ecumenical features over the years.

IV. A. The Founders of Chautauqua.

IV. A. 1. John Heyl Vincent.

IV. A. 2. Lewis Miller.

IV. B. Growth of the Chautauqua Institution.

IV. B. 1. The growth of the summer assembly in attendance.

IV. B. 2. The move from ecumenical focus to broader secular tastes.

IV. B. 3. The origin of traditions at Chautauqua.

IV. C. The Outreach of the Chautauqua Institution.

An important development in Chautauqua was Vincent’s idea to expand the summer work into the winter. People would be able to follow a prescribed course of readings for personal development. Vincent brought in an educator that would later become the first president of the University of Chicago by the name of William Rainey Harper. Harper developed the plan for the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, or the CLSC, also known as the Circle, which provided home study by mail order of literature, science, religion, and other topics of interest to people around the world, but primarily geared towards people of the Midwest, which was the stronghold of the CLSC. Several popular educational things came out of the Chautauqua Institution and the CLSC, including the first summer school, guided home reading, the first correspondence and extension courses with the establishment of Chautauqua University in 1884, and with the establishment of the Chautauqua Press in 1898, the first book-a-month club.

IV. C. 1. The Development of the CLSC.

Okay, here’s another question for you. What do you suppose was the largest institution of adult education in history? In fact, it was the largest institution of higher education. I’ll give you a hint. In 1900 it had an enrollment of over 2.5 million students. It was the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, the CLSC, also known simply as "The Circle."

IV. C. 1. a. William Rainey Harper.

IV. C. 1. b. Publications of the Circle.

IV. C. 1. c. The local circles.

IV. C. 1. d. The culture of the CLSC.

IV. C. 2. The Founding of the Chautauqua Press.

IV. C. 2. a. The Support of the Reading Programs.

IV. C. 2. b. Mail Order in the 19th Century and the First Book-A-Month Club.

IV. C. 3. The Chautauqua University.

V. The Development of Community Chautauquas.

It is the CLSC that I would give a great deal of credit for the success of the chautauqua movement. The communities affected by the CLSC and its publications were enormous. In 1878, more than 8,400 people joined the Circle, 100,000 had joined by 1888, and by 1900 there were 2.5 million people who became members. 10,000 local circles were developed between Many communities started their own chautauquas patterned after the New York Chautauqua Institution, and by the end of the 19th Century, between 200 and 300 community chautauquas had been established. One of the most famous and successful of the daughter chautauquas, as the community chautauquas were sometimes called, was finally settled in Ottawa, Kansas, after beginning in Lawrence in 1879 and moving to Topeka before finding a permanent home in Ottawa.

V. A The Beginning of the Daughter Chautauquas.

V. A. 1. Community Chautauquas Patterned after the New York Chautauqua.

V. A. 2. The Third Generation Community Chautauquas.

Not all of the community chautauquas were a direct result of the Chautauqua Institution of New York, but some were patterned after some of the leading daughter chautauquas. A very successful chautauqua that had a 37 year run from 1887 to 1924 was located in Winfield, Kansas. The Winfield Chautauqua was probably the most successful in the area of Southern Kansas and Northern Indian Territory, and it was actually started as a result of contacts between citizens of Winfield and the Ottawa Assembly. Like the Chautauqua Institution, many of the community chautauquas contracted with the lyceum bureaus to bring attractions to their summer assemblies. But each community maintained control of their own programming as did the lyceum committees before the Civil War.

V. B. Programming for Community Chautauquas.

V. B. 1. The Local Program Committees.

V. B. 2. The influence of the Lyceum Bureaus.

VI. The Circuit Chautauquas.

VI. A. Keith Vawter’s Attempt to organize the Community Chautauquas.

In 1900 a manager of the Chicago office of the Redpath Lyceum Bureau by the name of Kieth Vawter had thought of making a cicuit to connect the programming between all of the community chautauquas to improve the quality of performance as well as cut the cost of platform programs through bulk purchasing. He decided to try the concept in 1904 by approaching 40 different towns in Iowa that had developed community chautauquas to sell an entire program. Well, of course this didn’t go over gr

VI. A. 1. The 1903 plan.

VI. A. 2. The Tent Chautauqua Idea.

VI. B. 1904: The first of the Circuit Chautauquas.

VI. B. 1. Harry P. Harrison.

VI. B. 2. Transportation.

VI. B. 3. Lasting Effects of the 1904 Circuit.

VI. C. 1907: The Circuit Chautauqua Becomes an Institution all its Own.

VI. C. 1. Regional Chautauqua Circuits of 1905.

VI. C. 2. The Redpath Chautauqua Bureau in 1907.

VI. C. 3. Growth of the Circuit Chautauqua.

VI. D. Outside Influences on the Circuit Chautauqua.

VI. D. 1. The Move From Education to Entertainment.

VI. D. 2. Music at Chautauqua.

VI. D. 3. The Theater: From Lyceum to Chautauqua to Broadway.

VI. D. 4. Vaudevillian Influences on Chautauqua.

VI. E. 1914-24: The Glory Days of Chautauqua.

VI. E. 1. 1914: The Turning Point of the Circuit Chautauqua.

VI. E. 2. 1924: The Biggest Year of the Circuit Chautauqua.

VII. The Decline of the Chautauqua.

VII. A. The Effect of Circuit Chautauqua on the Independent Community Chautauquas.

VII. A. 1. The Move From Independence to Economy.

By 1919, the majority of community chautauquas switched to the programming of the circuit chautauquas. The need for the independents to compete with the circuits was a neccessity, because the circuit chautauquas were able to buy talent in bulk and sell it to the assemblies in the form of a complete package for much lower cost.

VII. A. 2. The Winfield Assembly’s Brief Period of Circuit Chautauqua Programming.

The Winfield, Kansas, Chautauqua Assembly used the circuit chautauquas for a period, but eventually went back to their own programming. It has been suggested that the Winfield Assembly officers thought that the move to allow the Redpath-Horner Chautauqua circuit out of Kansas City had hurt their chautauqua with the programs that were brought to Winfield. It is probably more likely that Redpath-Horner, and other chautauqua bureaus, actually hurt Winfield’s attendance more due to the programs it was bringing to area communities that had not previously had a chautauqua.

VII. A. 3. Wichita’s positive view of the Winfield, Kansas, Chautauqua Assembly.

At one point, members of the Wichita, Kansas, community were approached by the circuit chautauquas to see if they would like to set up their own tent chautauqua summer assembly. However, there were many people who had traveled to the Winfield Assembly for so long that the citizens of Wichita decided at that time not to sponser a chautauqua in their own community for fear that it would hurt the attendance and programming of the Winfield Assembly.

VII. A. 4. Arkansas City’s negative view of the Winfield Assembly.

An opposite view of the Winfield Assembly was taken by some of the member of the community to the south of Winfield. For nearly 30 years, Ark City residents had been attending the Winfield Assembly. The leaders of the community of Arkansas City resented the flux of income the chautauqua in Winfield created for its roads, buildings and other public projects. They saw a need to have a chautauqua assembly for Arkansas City, so that it could retain some of the revenue that it was losing. Not only did they contract to bring a circuit chautauqua to town, but they made arrangements in at least one year, I think 1907, to hold it on the same days as the Winfield Assembly. This, of course, incensed the leaders of Winfield, and the editorial remarks passed back and forth between the Winfield Daily Courier and the Arkansas City Traveller are quite entertaining. Although the circuit chautauquas across America experienced the best year of its run in 1824, the Winfield shut it doors at the end of that season never to operate again. The Winfield Assembly died with hardly a struggle.

VII. B. The Effect that Caused the Decline of the Circuit Chautauquas.

VII. B. 1. Transportation.

VII. B. 2. Communication.

VII. B. 3. Economics.

VIII. The Celebration of an Institution.

VIII. A. Maintaining the Chautauqua Institution.

VIII. B. Celebrating the Chautauqua Movement

VIII. B. 1. 1974: The 100th Anniversary of Chautauqua.

VIII. B. 2. The Commemorative Rural America Stamp.

VIII. B. 3. The Celebration of cities with Chautauqua Histories.

VIII. C. The Collection of Chautauqua History.

IX. The Development of the Modern Chautauqua Movement.

IX. A. North Dakota Humanities Council and the Great Plains Chautauqua.

IX. A. 1. The Beginning of the New Movement.

In celebration of the nation’s bicentennial celebration, and inspired by the centennial celebration of Chautauqua, a couple of members of the North Dakota Humanities Council developed a re-enactment of the original traveling tent chautauquas. Since it was a re-enactment, there were no modern speakers involved.

IX. A. 2. The Contemporary Model of Chautauqua.

The new contemporary model of chautauqua was that a scholar who has studied a person from history, would dawn the costume of that person, or character, and give a first-person impersonation of his or her character. The formula that came from this was that the scholar/performer would give about a 40 minute monologue in character, then, while remaining in character, he or she would answer questions from the audience for about 10 minutes, and then the scholar/performer would drop the persona and answer questions of the audience while speaking as him or herself.

IX. A. 3. The development of themes.

At first, one person would give a presentation, but it was later recognized that an entire theme could be developed by putting several of these performances together for a five-day program with workshops during the day, and presentations in the tent each evening.

IX. A. 4. The Great Plains Chautauqua Society.

This developed over time into The Great Plains Chautauqua Society, which today has 10 five-day programs in six states, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa (added recently), South Dakota, and North Dakota.

IX. B. Other Humanities Council Programs.

Many of the programs that are presented today by the humanities councils are a direct result of the groundwork laid by The Great Plains Chautauqua Society. Certainly the format or order of the first chautauqua series has come to be used regularly today. Summer chautauquas are produced by state humanities councils in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, and South Dakota, .

IX. B. 1. Tulsa Humanities Council: The First of the Contemporary Community Chautauquas.

A visit of the Great Plains Chautauqua to Tulsa was planned for 1990. However, budget cuts at the national level caused Tulsa to be cut from the program. Plans were made by members of the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa to present its own Chautauqua program for the next year, but the Great Plains Chautauqua was able to come to Tulsa in 1991. This postponed the creation of the first original Tulsa Council Chautauqua for one more year, but in 1992, Tulsa began the tradition that has lasted for ten years.

IX. B. 2. History Alive! Chautauqua in the Schools.

The Oklahoma Humanities Council and organizations of other states have taken the contemporary chautauqua concept to the public schools through History Alive! programs. This project was created after reports released in 1995 revealed that students in public schools knew little about American history. First person impersonations have been adapted to programs geared toward students in grades 4 through 12. The question and answer period has also been included, and this has always been my favorite part of the program, especially when high school age students ask questions that their politically correct parents might not necessarily feel comfortable asking.

IX. B. 3. Nevada Humanities Council: The First Organized Children’s Student Chautauqua.

One of the progressive chautauquas in the west is the one presented by the Nevada Humanities Council, which has a leader in Clay Jenkinson, well known for his portrayal of Thomas Jefferson and one of the original chautauqua scholars in the Great Plains Chautauqua. An innovative group of teachers has put together the student chautauqua, where children perform their own first-person characterizations of important people from history. The idea has spread, so now teachers on a local level are putting together classroom projects in which their students can participate as student scholars. Tulsa tried a small-scale program during the June chautauqua event in 2000. The Tulsa committee launched a larger scale project in the 2001 season which included a student chautauqua event the day before the regular chautauqua began at the chautauqua tent.

X. Conclusion.

Chautauqua has come to mean many things over the years. And the concept will continue to be defined in time. One thing upon which most agree is that Chautauqua is important work, which is of great benefit to any community that has  been enriched by its effect. Humanities and arts programs will all benefit by the trail that chautauquans have blazed.

X. A. The Outlook of Current Programs.

In June 2001 the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa Chautauqua celebrated its 10th Anniversary. The members of the Chautauqua Committee are putting together auiditions for the 2002 program and working on the 2003 theme at this time, and plans are already being discussed for the events proposed for Chautauqua during the centennial of Oklahoma statehood in 2007. Humanities councils across the nation that have chautauqua programs report that the chautauquas are the number one humanities events in popularity and attendance. The outlook of current programs in the Modern Chautauqua Movement is strong.

X. B. The Future of Chautauqua.

The future of Chautauqua lies with our children. History Alive! programs in the schools and student chautauquas, both of which expose the children to the idea of living history through re-enactment and first person impersonations, are important in ensuring this future. Coming generations of chautauqua programs will be assured only by the commitment of humanities councils and school systems to these sorts of programs geared toward young people. Long live chautauqua.

On this page:
History of the Lyceum and Chautauqua Movements
I. Introduction.
     A. Literature in 19th Century America.
     B. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essayist and Lecturer.
II. The Lyceum Movement of the 19th Century.
     A. The Start of the Lyceum.
          1. Origin of the Name "Lyceum."
          2. Josiah Holbrook, Adult Educator.
          3. The First Lyceum in Milbury Mass in 1826.
     B. 1826-1840: The Developments in the Lyceum Movement.
          1. Factors in the Growth of Lyceums.
          2. The Move from Primary Focus on Topics of Mechanics and Science to Topics of Literature and Culture.
          3. The Change in Motivation of Adult Education From One of Economics To One of Self Improvement.
          4. An Attempt to Organize.

     C. 1840-1857: Growth in the Lyceum Movement.
          1. Expansion into the West and South.
          2. Pre-Civil War platform performers.
          3. The depression and Civil War.
     D. The Post Civil War Era of Lyceum
          1. Performers of the second lyceum era.
          2. Individual Lyceum committees and contracts with platform performers.
          3. James Redpath and the Lyceum Bureaus.
          4. The addition of the Chicago district office and sale of the Redpath Bureau.
III. The Church Camp Meetings and Summer Assemblies.
     A. The Revival of Religion in America the late 18th and early 19th Centuries.
     B. The Regional Influences of the camp meeting.
          1. The Baptists of the South.
          2. The Methodists of the North.
     C. Religious Resorts: The Growth in Camp Meetings in the 19th Century.
     D. The Camp Meeting at North Point, New York, on the edge of the Chautauqua Lake.
     E. The Methodist Sunday School Movement.
IV. Development of the Chautauqua Institution.
     A. The Founders of Chautauqua.
          1. John Heyl Vincent.
          2. Lewis Miller.
     B. Growth of the Chautauqua Institution.
          1. The growth of the summer assembly in attendance.
          2. The move from ecumenical focus to broader secular tastes.
          3. The origin of traditions at Chautauqua.
     C. The Outreach of the Chautauqua Institution.
          1. The Development of the CLSC.
               a. William Rainey Harper.
               b. Publications of the Circle.
               c. The local circles.
               d. The culture of the CLSC.
          2. The Founding of the Chautauqua Press.
               a. The Support of the Reading Programs.
               b. Mail Order in the 19th Century and the First Book-A-Month Club.
          3. The Chautauqua University.
V. The Development of Community Chautauquas.
     A The Beginning of the Daughter Chautauquas.
          1. Community Chautauquas Patterned after the New York Chautauqua.
          2. The Third Generation Community Chautauquas.
     B. Programming for Community Chautauquas.
          1. The Local Program Committees.
          2. The influence of the Lyceum Bureaus.
VI. The Circuit Chautauquas.
     A. Keith Vawter’s Attempt to organize the Community Chautauquas.
          1. The 1903 plan.
          2. The Tent Chautauqua Idea.
     B. 1904: The first of the Circuit Chautauquas.
          1. Harry P. Harrison.
          2. Transportation.
          3. Lasting Effects of the 1904 Circuit.
     C. 1907: The Circuit Chautauqua Becomes an Institution all its Own.
          1. Regional Chautauqua Circuits of 1905.
          2. The Redpath Chautauqua Bureau in 1907.
          3. Growth of the Circuit Chautauqua.
     D. Outside Influences on the Circuit Chautauqua.
          1. The Move From Education to Entertainment.
          2. Music at Chautauqua.
          3. The Theater: From the Lyceum to Chautauqua to Broadway.
          4. Vaudevillian Influences on Chautauqua.
     E. 1914-24: The Glory Days of Chautauqua.
          1. 1914: The Turn of the Circuit Chautauqua.
          2. 1924: The Biggest Year of the Circuit Chautauqua.
VII. The Decline of the Chautauqua.
     A. The Effect of Circuit Chautauqua on the Independent Community Chautauquas.
          1. The Move From Independence to Economy.
          2. Wichita’s positive view of the Winfield, Kansas, Chautauqua Assembly.
          3. Arkansas City’s negative view of the Winfield Assembly.
     B. Developments that Caused the Decline of the Circuit Chautauquas.
          1. Transportation.
          2. Communication.
          3. Economics.
VIII. The Celebration of an Institution.
     A. Maintaining the Chautauqua Institution.
     B. Celebrating the Chautauqua Movement
          1. 1974: The 100th Anniversary of Chautauqua.
          2. The Commemorative Rural America Stamp.
          3. The Celebration of cities with Chautauqua Histories.
     C. The Collection of Chautauqua History.
IX. The Development of the Modern Chautauqua Movement.
     A. North Dakota Humanities Council and the Great Plains Chautauqua
     B. Other Humanities Council Programs.
          1. Tulsa Humanities Council: The First of the Contemporary Community Chautauquas.
          2. History Alive! Chautauqua in the Schools.
          3. Nevada Humanities Council: The First Organized Children’s Chautauqua.
X. Conclusion.
     A. The Outlook of Current Programs.
     B. The Future of Chautauqua.

NOTES:

http://www.bartleby.com/65/ch/Chautauq-mv.html

R. Richmond, Chautauqua: an American Place (1934)

http://www.bartleby.com/65/vi/VincentJ.html

http://www.bartleby.com/65/vi/VincentG.html

http://www.bartleby.com/65/ha/Harper-W.html

http://www.bartleby.com/65/ly/lyceum.html

http://www.bartleby.com/65/ca/campmeet.html

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Articles on the Chautauqua Movement (Historic and Current)

"Return of the Chautauqua" - Home and Away Magazine article by Mike Michaelson

"They Called It Chautauqua" - Fort Worth Star-Telegram article by Michael V. Hazel - Subject: Chautauqua Movement; Dallas and Waxahachie, Texas, Chautauquas.


Sandra Gladney

Big Tents and Speakers Bureaus: Exploring the Utilization of Chataqua Programs by State Humanities Councils

This study identified and described the chautauqua programs administered or funded by state humanities councils during FY 96-97. Data was gathered through survey and emergent categories were developed through constant comparative analysis. Literature review provided information on development of humanities councils (1960s-1980s) and historical chautauquas (1874-1930s). Analysis revealed that 24 councils had chautauqua programs. Five historical models were contrasted with six contemporary models. Models were analyzed through categories of format, content, audience, purpose, and producer.

University of Oregon Arts and Administration Program > 1998 Thesis/Project Abstracts > Community Arts > Sandra Gladney


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