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Chautauqua reminds me of a teaching aid by that name which my mother bought me when I was five years old. I still marvel at the excellence of the concept. It was a small folding desk without legs, to be put on a low table, with a green chalkboard that folded down to horizontal, and a long paper scroll with all sorts of educational material on it. I spent many happy hours with it. My recollection is that it was conceived at a summer meeting place for teachers in upstate New York, which gave it its name. Too bad the teaching aid I valued so much apparently did not survive the twenties.
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Oh, Dr. Bill, I thought this thread was going to tell of the beauty of Lake Chautauqua and the surrounding area, one of my favorite places nearby. During the summer, my husband and I take our yearly motorcycle trek down to the lake to have lunch on the shore. There is a working ferry boat at Bemis Point (about the midway point on the lake). There is also a beautiful paddle boat that gives you a nice tour of the lake for a small fee. The lake is surrounded by vineyards that produce the Chautauqua wines. Many small, local wineries offer tours and tasting. [hiccuping-e]
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Dear Angel: Glad at least I revived pleasant memories. The only times I have driven through upstate New York, it was alway in a big hurry to visit my wife's people in Kalamazoo, MI. I'm surprised that that little teaching aid died out so quickly and completely. I wish I had had one when my kids were small. Bill
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On Memorial Day weekend (May) of 1999, my first year at Historic Cold Spring Village, they had a traveling tent show of historical import called a Chautauqua. Completely new to me, I learned to my amazement it was a late 19th-early 20th century American (USn) Institution that toured the country presenting an enticing amalgam of music, drama, and political, literary, religious, scientific, philosophical, and humorous oration. Part of the ensemble included a Teddy Roosevelt portrayer, among other historic figures. A truly fascinating and stimulating concept and presentation! It was kind of like that time period's mass media all rolled into one. And it was under the Chautauqua tent that Mark Twain presented and perfected his humorous diatribes. Some say it spawned early Vaudeville, but most would consider any association to Vaudeville an insult to the integrity of what Chautauqua represented to the people of the time. My foremost reaction was, "Why haven't I ever heard about this before? Never in school, never in a history book, not even a mention. Chautauqua was so important and influential a feature in the formative process of that time in our nation's history, why is it not taught about?" I'm well-familiar with Vaudeville, having been involved with show-business...but even in that circle there was never any mention of the earlier Chautauqua. And I'm a history buff, I suck everything up...so why it took decades of my life to discover this unique and intriguing facet of our history is beyond me. So for those of you who are lucky enough to come across this info at a younger age, delve your curiosities into the fascinating history of Chautauqua...which began on the banks of Chautauqua Lake, of Angel's mention, in southwestern New York. Here's a couple of links that give capsule histories. I can't locate my papers on this offhand, but when I do I'll come back with any more intriguing facts I might recall. And, of course, there is a current movement of recreating these traveling Chautauqua, so if you see one come around, by all means catch it! http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/alliance/chautauqua/History.htmlhttp://www.prairie.org/chacha/hartchahist.html
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>there is a current movement of recreating these traveling Chautauqua these things have been making a 'comeback' since my boyhood, which was quite a long time ago indeed -- they must have had a long way to come back. 
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Surprises me PBS (US Public Broadcasting) hasn't tumbled on to Chautauqua and done a series! They did Wolf Trap after all!
Any PBSers out there reading?
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Dr. Bill, back to your original post... I had something when I was little (not as long ago, since I was born in 1976) which sounds like it is a descendant of your Chautauqua. It was a slate (not a real slate, since magnets could stick to it) mounted on a box about 5" in height. The slate was tilted slightly toward you, the whole thing was meant to sit on a table. There were sliding doors somewhere on the box, and inside there were cardboard stencils. There were guides along the sides of the slate so you could slip one onto the slate and trace letters of the alphabet. Also inside were a whole bunch of alphabet magnets, so you could spell things on the slate that way. As I recall, there was a lot of information on those little cards. I'd completely forgotten about it until I read your post. Thanks for reminding me - it was a favourite toy of mine, too!
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PBS hasn't tumbled on to Chautauqua
PBS is television, wow. NPR and/or PRI ha(ve/s) done many a program from and/or about Chautauqua.
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PBS is television, wow. NPR and/or PRI ha(ve/s) done many a program from and/or about Chautauqua.
Right you are Faldage!
What I'm plugging for is for PBS-TV to have a series called "Chautauqua" where we could see and hear the "performance" be it lecture, dance, song, or whatever ... not simply a discussion of the Chautauqua event itself.
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a series called "Chautauqua" where we could see and hear the "performance"
from
That's what the from was about. They broadcast events from Chatauqua with a little blurb about Chautauqua up front. Course it was only radio, so you had to be content with listening to the music; couldn't watch it. Except in your mind's eye.
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Bill: Chautauquas started out as travelling educational shows, I've always thought of them as the 19th century equivalent of PBS. But they were supplanted (or at the least augmented) by permanent sites at various places around the US (also I suspect in Canada.) Here's an old picture of the one I am familiar with up in Boulder, CO: http://www.archives.state.co.us/tour/pcbl3.htmNote the tents around the large building. People no longer camp there, but they still come to the big building for lectures, magic lantern shows, concerts by small groups, classes, etc. On Sunday they have a really nice buffet brunch. There was a private school very near this site, and in 1897 the railroad decided to have a chautauqua there. Somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind lies a memory that tells me the railroads pushed these travelling education devices to increase ridership. The people of Boulder liked it so much they floated a bond issue and erected the building. The railroads also financed travelling cycloramas, if I remember correctly. A cyclorama is a HUGE painting depicting an historical event. The artists painted them on canvas sections about 20 to 25 feet high, and I've forgotten how long. But the sections were sewn together so they could be unfurled to present a sort of theater in the round with the audience at the center. I've only seen one of them, and that is a painting of the Battle of Gettysburg painted from a viewpoint at The Angle, which was the point on the battlefield where the CSA came as close as they came to winning the war. It has 18 sections. Just a few yards away from the Angle, where you can see the fatal wound being delivered to the Confederate brigadier who made the greatest advance of any of those in Pickett's Charge, the artist Philippoteaux has painted himself into the picture. I can attest that standing at the center of this picture gives you a pretty good idea what hellfire was unleashed on July 3, 1863. It seems to me that the picture is somewhere around 75 feet in diameter, which gives it a circumference of over 200 feet. Multiply that times the height and you get a LOT of square feet of painting. But the more I think about it, I think it might be quite a bit bigger. I couldn't find any reliable statistics. Somewhere I read recently that there were around 100 of these awesome artifacts remaining in the world. One by Philippoteaux is a vista of Jerusalem on the day of Christ's crucifixion. Keiva might know something about the cyclorama of the Chicago Fire. It was over 20,000 square feet of canvas. TEd
TEd
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