Chautauqua

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For other uses of "Chautauqua," see Chautauqua (disambiguation)

The Chautauqua, (pronounced shə-tô'kwə) was a popular educational movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid 1920s. When the Chautauqua came to town, it brought entertainment for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers and specialists of the day.

1 History
2 Events
3 Music
4 Political context
5 References

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History

The first Chautauqua was organized by Methodist minister John H. Vincent and businessman Lewis Miller, in 1874. Two years earlier, Vincent, editor of the Sunday School Journal, had begun to train Sunday school teachers in an outdoor summer school format. The gatherings grew in popularity and were given a home at a campsite on the shores of Chautauqua Lake, New York, which later became the Chautauqua Institution.

The educational summer camp format proved to be a popular for families and was widely copied. Within a decade Chautauqua assemblies, sprang up in locations across North America. As the independent assemblies began to compete for the best performers and lecturers, lyceum bureaus assisted with bookings.

Keith Vawter, a Redpath Lyceum Bureau manager, came up with a new method of organizing a series of touring Chautauquas. Circuit Chautaugua, began in 1904. In Vawter’s schema, each performer, or group, appeared on a particular day of the program. Thus “first day” talent would move on to other Chautauquas, followed by the “second day” performers, and so on, throughout the touring season. By the mid-1920s when circuit Chautauquas were at their peak, they appeared in over 10,000 communities to audiences of more than 45 million.

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Events

Lectures were the mainstay of the Chautuaqua. Topics included current events, travel, and stories, often with a comedic twist. William Jennings Bryan, with his populist and evangelical message addressing topics such as temperance, was the most popular Chautauqua speaker, until his death in 1925. Maud Ballington Booth, the "Little Mother of the Prisons," was another popular performer on the circuit. Booth’s descriptions of prison life would move her audiences to tears and rouse them to reform. On a lighter note, author Opie Read's stories and homespun philosophy endeared him to audiences.

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Music

Music was important to Chautauqua. Band music was much in demand. John Phillip Sousa protégé Bohumir Kryl’s Bohemian Band was frequently seen on the circuit. One of the numbers featured by Kryl was the “Anvil Chorus” from Il Trovatore with four husky timpanists in leather aprons hammering on anvils shooting sparks (enhanced through special effects) across the darkened stage. Spirituals were also popular. White audiences appreciated seeing African-Americans performing other than minstrelsy. Other musical features of the Chautauqua included opera, Jubilee Singers singing a mix of spirituals and popular tunes and other singers and instrumental groups playing popular music, ballads and songs from the “old country.”

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Political context

Chautauquas can be viewed in the context of the populist ferment of the late 19th century. Manifestos such as the "Populist Party Platform" voiced a distain for political corruption and championed the plight of the common people in the face of the rich and powerful.