Circuit Chautauqua was not without precedents. For much of the nineteenth century, Lyceum agencies such as the Redpath Bureau offered speakers who, for a fee, delivered topical addresses or lectures to a particular community or civic group. These one-time engagements offered education and diversion to relatively isolated communities. Indeed, even during the height of circuit Chautauqua's popularity, agencies continued to profitably place speakers in Lyceum engagements. This 1915 advertisement promotes the Redpath agency's Lyceum speakers.

• How does a Lyceum engagement differ from a Chautauqua engagement?
• Who is the audience for this advertisement?
• Why should the potential customer trust the Redpath Bureau to select a suitable speaker?
• In what ways do modern talent agencies differ from Lyceum bureaus? How are they similar?

J. Roy Ellison and Keith Vawter originated circuit Chautauqua under the auspices of the respected Redpath Lyceum Bureau. Ellison and Vawter combined the programs of the "Mother Chautauqua" (as the New York site came to be called) with the mass marketing strategies employed on the Lyceum circuit. Search on schedules for materials such as this 1906 advertisement that reflects the content of Chautauqua programs as well as the bureaus' marketing strategies.

• Why would a potential customer be assured by viewing Mr. Green's previous season engagements? Why does the agency make note of return engagements?
• What sorts of towns does Mr. Green frequent on his circuits? What regions are they in?
• How does the passage at the top of the schedule characterize Mr. Green?
• What does Mr. Green's popularity and full schedule tell us about the tastes of audiences in 1906?

At the core of the circuit Chautauqua phenomenon was a unique business contract in which agencies such as Redpath agreed to provide a particular community with a Chautauqua -- a week long exposition of music, theater, lectures, children's programs, and dramatic readings -- for which the leaders of that community agreed to cover the cost. Local citizens were urged to purchase season tickets to ensure the success of that year's event. Under this arrangement, the bureaus reaped huge profits but the civic leaders, at best, broke even.

Chautauqua week, however, was a necessary and much anticipated event for small towns, and community leaders considered it their duty to bring a Chautauqua to their otherwise culturally-isolated community. From1904 until 1924, Chautauqua agencies and circuits grew up across both the United States and Canada with attempts in both New Zealand and Australia.

The "talent," the performers and speakers, typically arrived by train either the night before or the day of their appearance. Once finished, they were herded on to the next town to repeat exactly their previous night's performance. As such, many bureaus were hard pressed to maintain rosters of fresh, enthusiastic performers who could satisfy the audience's concurrent demands for entertainment and instruction. Accessible under the Subject Index heading Program schedules is a Redpath Horner Chautauqua program that describes the assembled talent:

Accessible through Subject Index headings, Propaganda, Motion Pictures, and World War, 1914-1918, the program promises that not only are Neely's motion pictures "Approved by the Kaiser" but are the only ones "so far brought to this country."

• How does the text characterize the German military and its endeavors?
• Why would audiences have wanted to see images of famous German landmarks and leaders?
• How might early-nineteenth-century audiences have responded to these photographs?
• What motives might a bureau manager have had for promoting both sides of an entirely foreign conflict?

As long as the memory of the world endures people will honor the heroic women of France and Belgium. The outrages visited upon them by the ravaging Hun, the unquenchable spirit in the midst of overwhelming woes will never be forgotten.

• How does the piece characterize the women of Belgium and France? The German forces?
• How would you describe the tone of the piece?
• How might the language of this piece differ from a similar program delivered before or after the war?
• Of what unique value are eyewitness accounts?

A keyword search on liquor provides the 1914 promotional literature for Malcolm R. Patterson, then governor of Tennessee. The materials claim that the governor is:

The most commanding figure and the most brilliant speaker now enlisted in the American anti-saloon campaign . . .His own story of his part in the greatest crusade of modern times is so convincing, so reasonable, so eloquent, so effective that great audiences in the largest cities all over the Union, during the past six months have been swayed and carried as by a storm and have actually subscribed more than two millions of dollars in the form of a five year endowment to the anti-saloon league, and the liquor traffic is gradually retreating to its final destruction. Yet Governor Patterson's manner and methods are not of violence or vituperation. He loves the liquor dealer as a man, but hates his business. His argument is economic, logical, reasonable, and his oratory sublime.

"The fight is not over," said Col. Dan Morgan Smith, leader of the "Battalion of Death" in the World War, before a great audience Sunday afternoon in St. Paul's Church. The Anti-Saloon Army is fighting for the same humanity and for the same Constitution for which we fought in France, and the Anti-Saloon League will keep on fighting until the beverage use of liquor is wiped out. Col. Smith is a persuasive orator, and drove home facts and logic in unassailable fashion.

• What does Smith mean when he says, "The Anti-Saloon Army is fighting for the same humanity and for the same Constitution for which we fought in France?" Do you think that this is a reasonable comparison?
• What role does Smith's military background play in his argument? How do you think that Smith's background might have contributed to the effect of his presentation?
• Do you think Smith's military experience makes him a more credible lecturer on the subject of temperance?
• How would you characterize the tone of Smith's rhetoric?

Whose Colorful Career Took Her from the Heights of Film Fame to the Depths of Suffering Known Only to Drug Addicts, and Who Valiantly Won Back Health and Strength, is Dedicating the Rest of Her Life to Fight the Dope Evil in a Campaign of Education and Warning.

• What is the tone of this piece regarding drug abuse? How might this tone contribute to the promotion of Hansen's presentation? How might it contribute to the presentation itself?
• Are there differences between the techniques used in promoting temperence and those used in preventing drug abuse?
• How might Ms. Hansen's "fame" help in delivering her message?
• Do present-day stars engage in such campaigns? How are their efforts different or similar to Ms. Hansen's?

Many Chautauqua audiences were eager to hear of developments outside of their own country. To fill this need, agency talent rosters were full of eyewitness lecturers and studied experts who offered opinions, stories, and advice regarding subjects ranging from The Russian Revolution to West Indian Voodoo.

Subject Index heading, Travel, yields 103 results including advertising materials for Captain Sirgurdur K. Gudmundson's "Personal Experiences in Arctic Siberia," James Caleb Sawders's "Interesting Stories of Mexico and Nicaragua," and a series of lectures by Jim Wilson entitled "Yes! Africans are People!"

• Why would travel be an alluring subject for early twentieth century audiences?
• Are travel stories as popular today?
• What types of professionals would present lectures on foreign experiences?
• What approaches does "Yes! Africans are People!" take towards its subject to make it appealing to the Chautauqua audience?
• What can we infer about the audience from this promotion?

While many speakers drew interest simply because of their travel experience, some speakers brought an international focus to already popular topics. A good example is Whiting Williams, whose promotional materials are accessible through the Subject Index headings, Working Class and Europe - Social Conditions. The material describes Mr. Williams as an educated steel executive who forsook a life of ease in order to study workers' conditions around the world. As such, he was purportedly able to offer an informed and realistic discussion on international labor.

The following text from the promotional biography illustrates not only the character the agency wished to present, but avails researchers of an opportunity to draw conclusions regarding Mr. Whiting's subject and audience:

In many cases, Chautauqua speakers addressed domestic developments relative to their international significance. The Subject Index heading, Atom Bomb, yields materials for a 1947 lecture by Lt. Col. Perry M. Thomas. The press materials quote Thomas as having said:

International control of the use of atomic energy is imperative if humanity is to survive, Lt. Col. Perry M. Thomas of the United States Army Air Forces told his audience last night. If nations persist in a race to provide still more powerful and still more deadly atomic weapons with a view of utilizing them in a war of conquest, civilization is doomed.

• Why might Native Americans have been limited to roles as entertainers on the Chautauqua circuit?
• What attitude towards Native American culture and its place in American culture does this limitation reflect?
• How might Native American heritage have helped or hurt the earning potential of a Chautauqua performer?
• What advantages and disadvantages did Chautauqua offer a Native American who was willing to perform?

Researchers will want to look under the Subject Index headings, Cherokee, Eskimo, Ojibwa, and Winnebago, for materials on performances and speakers ostensibly related to particular tribes. A more general search on keyword American Indians, however, yields 100 pertinent documents including promotional materials for "Charles Eagle Plume: America's Foremost Interpreter of Indian Lore, Life and Culture," "The Hiawatha Indian Passion Play," and "The Frederick Monsen Ethnographic Indian Photographs." The latter document is particularly valuable because it includes many of the photos used in Mr. Monsen's presentation.

• What tone and attitude towards Native American culture is voiced in the text of "The Frederick Monsen Ethnographic Indian Photographs"?
• Do the photographs reflect a certain attitude or interest towards Native American people? Do they reflect an opinion about them?

• What is the importance of the composer's credits?
• How does the description "The Indian Mezzo-Soprano" affect the impact of the promotion?
• Who might enjoy Ms. Watahwaso's performance? Who might dislike it?
• Do current portrayals of Native American culture reflect impressions created by programs such as these? In what way?

From the Cover of "Princess Watahwaso."

Cover of "The Ups and Downs of Aviation."

The years in which circuit Chautauqua was most active (roughly 1904-1924) were also ones of unprecedented technological and scientific breakthroughs. Not surprisingly, many Chautauqua speakers were knowledgeable individuals from various disciplines of science and industry. The materials in the collection offer researchers the opportunity to examine the manner in which popular culture embraced new technologies and knowledge in the first half of the twentieth century.

Using subject specific searches, researchers can explore the collection for pertinent materials. For example, the Subject Index heading, Aviation, yields twenty-four documents. Among these documents are promotional materials for C.B.F. Macauley, author of "The Helicopters Are Coming", and "A Tribute to Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh," celebrating the aviator's homecoming. The speaker, Louis Ludlow, says the following of Captain Lindbergh's flight:

In the case of the theremin, an early electronic instrument that produced tones based on the motions of the player, art, science, and technology blended in a novel way that made for a dramatic, entertaining performance. Accessible under the Subject Index heading, Theremin, promotional materials for "Charles Stein: America's Foremost Exponent of the Theremin" observe:

Perhaps the first thing that impresses the person who sees and hears the Theremin, is the apparently miraculous effect produced by moving the hands easily in the thin air about a polished mahogany cabinet a little more than waist high. It is as if the hands were running over strange and invisible strings. The weirdness of this first impression, however, soon gives way to interest in the compelling beauty of the tone produced.

Also popular on Chautauqua programs were presentations that dealt with emerging scientific knowledge. A search on keyword science results in 100 pertinent documents including "Captain Jack Harrison: Science Fights Crime," Frederic Campbell's "Popular Lectures on the Stars," and, proving that the domestic sphere was not beyond contemplation, "Good Cookery" by Miss Florence Norton.

Early scientific Chautauqua programs strove to assure the buying public that science and public demonstration were not only mutually compatible but also desirable. The materials relating to Professor J. Ernest Woodland's 1906 program "Demonstrations in Twentieth Century Science" note that:

Every community should have at least one popular scientific lecture a year. If presented by a student who knows how to give to laymen the results of his scientific research, such lectures are eminently instructive and delightfully entertaining. The community has a right to demand, however, something more than can be learned by books and magazine articles. The lecturer must speak with authority; he must come fresh from his laboratory; he must give the audiences the results of the latest scientific research.

• According to the passage, what are the benefits of a scientific presentation? How is such a presentation different from scientific books and periodicals?
• What assumptions does the statement make about the public's interests and expectations?
• What does the statement suggest is the proper relationship between scientists and the general public?
• What do the promotional materials as a whole suggest about the relationship between scientists and the general public in this era?
• How is the contemporary relationship between scientists and the general public different from that suggested by the article? How is it similar?

One of the great issues in the first decades of the twentieth century was women's suffrage. As early as 1903, Chautauqua performer Billy Arlington included a burlesque lecture entitled "Female Suffrage" in his "Minstrel Reminiscences," in which he dressed as Susan B. Anthony.

• Do you think that Mr. Arlington's portrayal of Susan B. Anthony was serious or humorous?
• What does this portrayal tell us about opinion at the turn of the century?
  
• What members of Mr. Arlington's audience might have been offended by his burlesque?

A search on keyword suffrage results in eighty documents including materials for early women political figures such as Nellie Tayloe Ross, "The First woman governor of Wyoming" and Jeannette Rankin, the congresswoman from Montana. The materials for Ross observe:

Governor Ross so directed the affairs of the state of Wyoming that she achieved nation-wide recognition, and not a single act or omission of hers was cited to impugn the fitness of women for public office. As her two-year term of office drew to a close, she issued a challenge to her opponents "to point out a single act of mine wherein I have failed because I am a woman, and wherein a man would have succeeded because he is a man." That challenge was never met.