The Chautauqua vision of liberal education1

Abstract

Chautauqua (1874‐present) was founded in western New York state, USA. It developed into a centre for education, religion, arts and recreation. Examined here is the philosophy of its programmes: liberal education for adults, regardless of background. The backdrop for Chautauqua was the US tradition of popular self‐improvement; local clienteles were already eager to improve themselves. Cofounders John H. Vincent and Lewis Miller upheld the liberal education philosophy of the day, but with an evangelical Protestant Christian purpose behind it. During the Chautauqua movement of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, its radical innovations spread internationally. Vincent’s Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC) was the first major correspondence school in the USA. William Rainey Harper, founding president of the University of Chicago, incorporated the key Chautauquan ideas of summer sessions, correspondence study, extension courses and university press in his master plan (1892). George E. Vincent led Chautauqua Institution (1907‐1915), yet his vision of liberal education emphasized current events and social issues—setting the tone through the rest of the twentieth century up to today. Ironically, the movement was both international and local; democratic, but white and middle‐class; feminine, though liberal education was a male pursuit; and celebrated scholars lectured, yet the academic programmes were considered superficial.