With the 1911 session the Florida Chautauqua once again rewrote itself, at least in part. Education superseded entertainment, primarily as a result of the International Sunday School convention held during this assembly. The seven-week session, defined by new terminology, included several significant shifts in content and offerings.
Two themes become evident very quickly in the opening paragraphs of the printed program. The first was the Florida
Chautauqua’s link to other Chautauqua institutions; the second was the use of the term “best." The program makes several statements which link or call for comparison of the Florida Chautauqua with the
Chautauqua ideal or other Chautauquas around the country. The first claimed that for twenty-six years the assembly had an “annual program unsurpassed by any of the great institutions in the North and
182
immediately followed by the assertion that “the list of talent is built along the lines of true Chautauqua work as outlined by the great mother Chautauqua of New York” (The Florida Chautauqua, 1911, 1). The inclusion of the best possible entertainment and lectures brings about a realization of the “great Chautauqua idea of reaching through popular methods all classes.. . (The Florida Chautauqua, 1911,1). This method of linking the Florida Chautauqua with other great
Chautauquas and with the general Chautauqua ideal assisted the reader in creating a desirable text of the De Funiak Springs assembly. If the Florida Chautauqua were greater than any institution in the North or Northwest (including, presumably, the original assembly in New York), and if it were organized along the lines of the “mother
Chautauqua,” then the reader could be assured of a quality program worthy of the exchange of time and money for cultural competence.
Closely related to this theme is the theme of “best” interspersed throughout the opening description. The advertisement reassured the reader that this was a first-rate program, composed of “the best in the lecture platform, the best of music, both of a classical and a popular nature, the best in entertainment.. . . (The Florida Chautauqua, 1911, 1, emphasis added). The inclusion of the best in every category worked to instill “in the mind the desire for the best in each line, elevating, as well as entertaining, the audiences” (The Florida Chautauqua, 1911, 1, emphasis added). The use of “b e s f along with other adjectives such as “unsurpassed,” “great," “largest,” “stirring,” and “skilled” created a positive image of a strong assembly.
Both of these themes are indicative of a more focused approach to the promotion of the Florida Chautauqua by its sponsors. They attempted to help the reader group the Florida assembly with a larger group of texts, some of which were probably more familiar to Northern readers. The promoters chose to focus no longer on the isolated text found in Florida. While other programs had made passing reference and minimal association with other Chautauquas, the 1911 program represented the most concerted effort along those lines of
development. Ultimately the two themes indicate a determined effort by the management to advertise the Florida Chautauqua in the strongest way possible to attract additional consumers. The promoters marketed the goods (in this case, the Florida Chautauqua as a whole) in such a way as to present it in terms of other goods in the same category while at the same time illustrating the differential advantage of the Florida assembly.
This program also included a departure from the standard course offerings of the previous four years. Music still offered an emphasis on soloists, and for the first time the program supplied a reason for the elimination of the chorus class, a standard in the music department until 1907. “The old-time chorus has given place to the finished work of glee clubs, quartets, and concert companies, and the artistic product of professional soloists.. . . ” (The Florida Chautauqua, 1911, 6).
The Literature department provided a variety of instructors, including several readers and impersonators. Instead of just private instruction in elocution, the 1911 session offered a daily hour during the
184
first week for instruction by Dr. Byron King of King’s School of Oratory in Pittsburgh. The class offered instruction in elocution, oratory, and expression.
Two other familiar departments were the illustrated travelogue and the Photography club. The introductory paragraph to the
coursework section also indicated that instruction was available in Domestic Science, Health and Physical Training, Physical Culture, and Biblical Literature, although no formal descriptions were given for the courses.
One new addition to the coursework offerings was the class in Home Nursing. Presented by Dr. Geizel, this series of lectures was designed to teach “mothers and home nurses to help the doctor" (The
Florida Chautauqua, 1911, 10). Dr. Geizel and her assistant were to
give practical training which promoters hoped the large rural population in attendance would deem valuable.
That rural population was also the focus for another course offering: the assembly scheduled the Agricultural Department to meet March 8 through March 11. The description of the work simply
indicated plans to give a series of lectures on Farms and Farm Work, with one of the lectures featuring a demonstration of farm cooking for women. The State Experiment Station and the Farmer’s Institute sponsored the program. In an effort to attract as many of the Walton County farmers as possible, the Florida Chautauqua offered to give a complimentary ticket to any of the farmers who requested one.
A major addition to the educational offerings and a significant part of the program was the International Sunday School Convention
held February 26 to March 3, billed as “one of the greatest rallies ever held in West Florida” (The Florida Chautauqua, 1911, 9). The
convention scheduled more than fifty sessions for this convention, thus accounting for more of the program content than any other area,
including entertainment categories. For one week, the Sunday school convention comprised virtually the entire program for the Florida Chautauqua. The convention provided the management of the assembly with several benefits. They did not have to plan this convention; yet listing the offerings in the program helped create the illusion of a full assembly. The remuneration of the convention speakers was probably either entirely or at least partially covered by the convention planners, thus easing some of the financial burden on the management.
The planners designed the sessions to aid in the training of Sunday school teachers, covering many topics from history to philosophy to belief to practical application. A sampling of topics is listed below:
Religious Education: The Modem movement, Its Causes, Origin and Results in the Field of Sunday Schools
What the Sunday School may Mean to a Church
The Application of Educational Principles to the Sunday School Practical Studies of Beginners and Primaries
Temperance Teaching of the Sunday School Work of Officers and Committees
How to Construct and Tell a Story The Spiritual Life of the Sunday School
186
History of the Teacher Training Movement
These topics, and a host of others like them, provided the expected three hundred delegates with a thorough exposure to and
indoctrination in the Sunday school movement. Since these sessions were the only events offered during this time, one may presume that many of the other attendees received much of this information as well. The program billed the convention as a great opportunity for the people of De Funiak Springs and Western Florida, as well as “one of the most important gatherings ever held in this section of the Southland” (The
Florida Chautauqua, 1911, 9).
The great number of lectures included as part of the Sunday school convention explains the high number of lecturers included in the listing of assembly talent. The twenty-seven different lecturers far
outnumbered the fifteen musical groups/individuals and the eight illustrated lecturers and readers. Not including the Sunday School convention meetings, this session continued the decline in those events classified as religious in content with only sixteen different religious sessions listed in the program. Sundays continued the practice begun in 1910 of holding only a Vespers service and evening sermon.
This program included slightly more than fifty entertainment features, most musical in nature. The orchestra gave musical preludes for fifteen minutes in the evening before the main attractions, and daily, afternoon concerts were prominent. Moving pictures, once seen only occasionally in a program, were now regular features of the evening
sessions, sometimes comprising the sole entertainment. The program included a reduction in readings and impersonations.
One additional feature of the program content was new with the 1911 program. The writings refered to many of the lectures as “Popular Lecture." The meaning of this term and the distinction from the
standard lecture is not clear from the program. Several of the popular lectures were “Billy Bray, the King’s Son,” “Thomas Jefferson,” “Love and Matrimony,” and “The Logic of Laughter.” Whether the
management intended these to be lighter presentations as opposed to heavy, purely educational ventures is not certain but may be a reason for the different terminology.
The 1911 session included several departures from the standard story line developed through the history of the Florida Chautauqua. Perhaps the most significant was the major influence on the program content of outside organizations such as the International Sunday School Convention and the Agricultural Rally. For the first time,
sources other than the direct supervision of the assembly management generated a significant part of the offerings. Education, primarily
through the convention, was the major component or emphasis of this session. In addition, that education has a distinctly religious flavor to it. The increase in education and religion is a contradiction to the strong development of the entertainment aspects of the Florida Chautauqua and the concomitant decline of education and especially of religion in previous sessions. The years from 1907 through 1911 have
demonstrated an assembly in flux. The relative stability of the late 1890’s and early 1900’s had not been experienced since 1906.