OCH Programs > Oregon Chautauqua
The Oregon Council for the Humanities offers opportunities for civic dialogue and humanities learning to all Oregonians, including those who might not otherwise have access. OCH strives to be responsive to timely issues and concerns across the state and provides a broad context for conversation.
A Brief History of Chautauqua
Chautauqua lectures borrow their name from the Seneca word for a lake in New York where summer training sessions for Sunday school teachers began in 1874 at an old Methodist Church campsite. The program rapidly grew into an educational and cultural gathering place for adults, and classical music, literary readings, and physical education were added to the curriculum. Chautauqua circuits formed throughout the country as part of the populist adult education movement of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. William Jennings Bryant, Edgar Bergen, Booker T. Washington, Carrie Nation, and Eugene Debs were among the personalities who traveled the circuits. Today the Chautauqua Institution in New York offers educational programs and lectures year-round, many of which are broadcast on public radio stations throughout the country.
Portland was home to the Ellison-White Chautauqua System, the center of Chautauqua circuit activity all along the Pacific coast. Influential local Chautauqua societies were also popular in Ashland, Corvallis, and Gladstone. Abigail Scott Duniway, Joaquin Miller, and Ida Tarbell participated in programs here. The Oregon Shakespeare Theatre in Ashland is located on the old Chautauqua site, and there was an astounding open-air structure in Gladstone until 1959.
Oregon Chautauqua
OCH's Oregon Chautauqua is a statewide speakers bureau offering an annual catalog of humanities programs to nonprofit organizations in Oregon, free of charge. For twenty-eight years our scholars have traveled to communities of all sizes across the state, bringing more than 100,000 Oregonians together to learn, talk, argue, and share their ideas. Topics and scholars in the 2008-09 catalog are listed below. Please visit the "Calendar" page to see when Oregon Chatauqua programs will be offered in your community in the coming months.
OCH funds scholars' honoraria, mileage, and per diem costs. Sponsoring community organizations also receive support materials for public relations, event planning, and evaluation. Our goal is to fulfill every organization's program request, but each year the demand is more than we can meet. Please visit our "Support" page for information to learn how you can help support this vital community resource.
OCH's Partnership with Oregon 150
OCH is proud to celebrate Oregon's sesquicentennial by partnering with Oregon 150. The following Chautauqua programs have been designated as special Oregon 150 presentations: Out of the Ordinary Oregon, presented by Connie Battaile; Women Photographers in Oregon, presented by Carole Glauber; Justice in Frontier Oregon, presented by Diane Goeres-Gardner; Innovators & Traders, presented by Pat Courtney Gold; Sojourners, Settlers, and New Immigrants, presented by Erlinda Gonzales-Berry; Becoming Oregon, presented by Robert Hamm; The Portland Trail Blazers' Championship Season, presented by Matt Love; True Stories & Other Fictions in Northwest Oral History, presented by Tom Nash; Place and History, presented by William Robbins; and Jewish Pioneers in Eastern Oregon, presented by Jack Sanders.
These programs will be offered all across the state through August 2009. Please visit our Calendar page for dates, times, and locations.
2008-09 Oregon Chautauqua Programs and Scholars
- A Tale of Two Rivers
- Janet Brown
- Adapting to Global Interdependence
- Richard L. Clinton
- Aristophanes: The Grandfather of Comedy (Please note: program no longer available as of 1/15/09)
- Keith Scales
- Becoming Oregon: A Printed History
- Robert Hamm
- Birdsong: Birds as Metaphor in American Folk Music
- Jeni K. Foster
- Changing Perspectives on Oregon's Geology
- Janet L. Brown
- Chinese Diaspora in the Americas: The First "Illegal Aliens"
- Elliott Young
- Creed without Chaos: Dorothy L. Sayers's Religious Writings
- Laura K. Simmons
- Dr. Esperanto and the Dream of a Universal Language
- James Kopp
- The Idea of Justice
- Lani Roberts
- Innovators and Traders: The Indigenous People of the Columbia River
- Pat Courtney Gold
- Jewish Pioneers in Eastern Oregon: The Case of Samuel Rothchild
- Jack T. Sanders
- Justice in Frontier Oregon, 1851-1905
- Diane Goeres-Gardner
- Magic Carpet Made of Steel: Songs of America's Railroads
- Jeni K. Foster
- Night of a Thousand Stars and Other Portraits of Iraq
- Joel Preston Smith
- Obsidian: History through the Volcanic Glass Window
- Dennis L. Jenkins
- Out of the Ordinary Oregon
- Connie Battaile
- Picturing Christ's Passion: From the Catacombs to Mel Gibson
- Ann M. Nicgorski
- Place and History: In Search of the Pacific Northwest
- William G. Robbins
- The Poets in Our Backyard
- David Biespiel
- The Portland Trail Blazers' Championship Season: An Oregon Story
- Matt Love
- Reading Houses: What Architecture Tells Us About Ourselves
- Diana Coogle
- Sojourners, Settlers, and New Immigrants: Mexicanos in Oregon
- Erlinda Gonzales-Berry
- Stitched Patches: Quilts of Celebration
- Mary Bywater Cross
- Trickster at the Crossroads of the World
- Curtis Yehnert
- True Stories and Other Fictions in Northwest Oral History
- Tom Nash
- Walking the Labyrinth
- Nancy Appling
- Women Photographers in Oregon, 1852-1917
- Carole Glauber
How to Apply to Sponsor
an Oregon Chautauqua
- Call or e-mail Program and Development Coordinator Annie Dubinsky at OCH to request a copy of the current Oregon Chautauqua catalog.
- Review the program descriptions, OCH procedures, and host responsibilities in the catalog. Select up to three programs that you'd like to bring to your community. OCH regrets that we cannot fulfill all requests for programs. Contact the scholars whose programs interest you to learn more about their work and select dates that you can both PENCIL in on your calendar.
- Complete a separate application form for each program that you have selected and submit it to OCH according to the chart listed below AND at least six weeks prior to the proposed event date. We will make every effort to respond to requests in a timely manner. OCH's sponsorship is not confirmed until sponsors receive notification and support materials from OCH.
- The following schedule for submitting applications is also listed in the front of the catalog:
| Submit Applications: | For Programs to be held in: |
| June - August 2008 | September - December 2008 |
| October - December 2008 | January - April 2009 |
| February - April 2009 | May - August 2009 |
Oregon Chautauqua Sponsor Forms
If you are sponsoring an Oregon Chautauqua program and need copies of the required forms and supplementary resources, you can download them here. Please contact Program and Development Coordinator Annie Dubinsky at (503) 241-0543, ext. 116, or adubinsky@oregonhum.org if you have trouble downloading the forms.