"Chautauqua was a social and cultural phenomenon which began in 1874 and expanded and permeated rural American until the mid 1920s. Going to Chautauqua meant music, laughter, relaxation and stimulation for millions of rural Americans. When Chautauqua came to town, there was entertainment for the whole family and the entire community.

Chautauqua was the product of John H. Vincent of Camden , New Jersey , a young minister. In 1872, Vincent, then editor of the Sunday School Journal undertook to train Sunday school teachers by bring them together every summer for all day study. His idea for a summer school to be held in the outdoors grew in popularity and a home was found at a little used campsite on the shores of Lake Chautauqua, New York . Young people were invited for study, bonfires, good meals and lodging. It was a huge success and was soon expanded to include not only religious and Biblical study but a wide range of literacy, historical, sociological, and scientific subjects. The teachers included such personalities of the late 1800s as Booker T. Washington and Carrie Nation.

The Chautauqua idea was soon copied in other communities for people who could not travel to Lake Chautauqua , New York . The first was in Ohio with similar programs soon to follow in Michigan and Iowa . By 1900 there were two hundred pavilions in thirty-one states. Each furnished vacation blended with study and entertainment. On the program were teachers, preachers, explorers, travelers, scientists, politicians and statesmen, singers, violinists, pianists and bell ringers, glee clubs, bands, orchestras, concert companies, quartettes, quintets and sextets, monologists, readers, elocutionists, jugglers, magicians, whistlers and yodelers".
www.campusschool.dsu.edu/myweb/history.htm

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"The Chautauqua Movement, sometimes called the Chautauqua Adult Education Movement, is somewhat of a modern term. In the days when it was changing American life, people involved in the process knew that they were part of something important, but they didn't know what to call it.

The development of adult education in America owes much of its roots to the work of the founders of the Chautauqua Institution, who later started the "CLSC".(*) and inspired the hundreds of local reading groups that came into existence in North America, and literally around the world. The independent Chautauquas across North America and later the circuit Chautauquas also contributed significantly to the education of American adults -- most whom had been a long time out of school -- in their own communities.

The Chautauqua Movement is arguably the most important period in the development of what we know today as adult education. Many institutions as libraries, museums, universities, arts and humanities programs, came as a result of the Chautauqua Movement -- especially those institutions in rural America."

From; "The Complete Chautauquan: A Guide to What 'Chautauqua' Means in America". By Jeffrey Scott Maxwell

(*)"The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC) was started in 1878 to provide those who could not afford the time or money to attend college the opportunity of acquiring the skills and essential knowledge of a College education. The four-year, correspondence course was one of the first attempts at distance learning. Besides broadening access to education, the CLSC program was intended to show people how best to use their leisure time and avoid the growing availability of idle pastimes, such as drinking, gambling, dancing and theater-going, that posed a threat both to good morals and to good health. To share the cost of purchasing the publications and to take encouragement from others in the course, students were encouraged to form local CLSC reading circles. Soon these were established throughout the country and, in time, around the world. Among those who benefited most from the CLSC program were women, teachers, and those living in remote rural areas. At the end of their four years of study, students were invited to come to Chautauqua to receive their certificates in a ceremony, which is still held today during the first week in August.

With the success of the CLSC, many new Chautauquas were created, known as 'Daughter Chautauquas,' giving rise to what was called the 'Chautauqua Movement.' Some years later, the talent agencies that provided speakers and entertainers for these platforms, put together shows of their own, which traveled to small towns across the United States and Canada. These were known as the 'circuit chautuaquas' or 'tent chautauquas.'

By 1880 the Chautauqua platform had established itself as a national forum for open discussion of public issues, international relations, literature and science. Approximately 100 lecturers appear at Chautauqua during a season."

http://www.ciweb.org/history.html

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