Early History of Chautauqua Movement

Chautauqua began as a summer school for Sunday School teachers in Chautauqua, New York in 1874.  By the turn of the twentieth 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.