CHAUTAUQUA (skt-WkWa). In 1874 Bishop John H.
Vincent and Lewis Miller started a summer assembly for the instruction of Sunday school teachers. They loacted it at Chautauqua, a popular lake resort in western New York. It grew rapidly into one of the most important and characteristic of American con tributions to popular education. No other influence until the rise of university extension did so much to direct the reading of thousands of adults who wanted to supplement their early education.
The movement soon covered the United States and spread to Canada, England, Japan, and South Africa. Special graded courses of study were estab lished in almost a hundred subjects. Simple text books were supplied to the 300,000 members of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. Diplomas were given at the end of a four years' course.
Besides the parent assembly still held each year in July and August, local Chautauquas with lectures, readings, music, and varied entertainment are now held throughout the country. These local " Chau tauquas" are organized and supplied with excellent lecturers and entertainers by bureaus which have nothing to do with the original Chautauqua.