|
"What is in mind is a sort of Chautauqua -- that's the only name I can think of for it -- like the traveling tent-show Chautauquas that used to move across America, an old-time series of popular talks intended to edify and entertain, to improve the mind and bring culture and enlightenment to the ears and the thoughts of the hearer." -- Robert Pirsig, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" |
Early History of Chautauqua Movement
Early Chautauqua | Modern Chautauqua | KS/NE Chautauqua Events (PDF)
 |
|
A 10-cent stamp was issued in 1974 to celebrate the centennial of the Chautauqua in America. |
Chautauqua began as a summer school for Sunday School teachers in Chautauqua, New York, in 1874. By the turn of the 20th century, Chautauqua had developed into a nationwide traveling educational and entertainment program. Theodore Roosevelt called Chautauqua “the most American thing in America.”
Traveling Chautauquas in the late 1800s and early 1900s brought the world to rural communities across the nation, including those in Kansas and Nebraska. Chautauqua combined programs of political oratory and lectures about health, science, and the humanities with entertainment, such as opera singers and stage performances of Shakespeare. Well-known speakers and politicians such as William McKinley, Rutherford B. Hayes, William Howard Taft, and William Jennings Bryan toured the Chautauqua circuit. Audiences heard about national issues and discussed their views with their neighbors. For many rural Kansas and Nebraska towns, Chautauqua week was the most important week of the year.
© 2008-2009, Kansas & Nebraska Humanities Councils -
design: Good Karma Host - Top
