Scope and Contents
The collection contains seventeen scrapbooks (1931-1956) that include clippings, articles, programs, and other printed matter regarding the bureau's sponsored entertainment.
Clippings and programs in the scrapbook give information about the type of entertainment (music, theatre, etc), the location, and date of the performances. The articles give additional information about the performers and attendees.
Dates
- 1931-1956
Creator
- Ellison, J. Roy (Person)
- White, Clarence H., 1874-1945 (Person)
- Ellison-White Chautauqua Bureau (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs. All requests for permission to publish collection materials must be submitted to Special Collections and University Archives. The reader must also obtain permission of the copyright holder.
Biographical / Historical
According to the Canadian Encyclopedia online Chautauqua was "the name given to travelling tent shows which originated in the USA and flourished in Canada 1917-35.
A summer school, established in 1874 on Lake Chautauqua, NY, with an eye to combining adult education and morally uplifting recreation, adopted the name from its location, and gradually the name came to represent the type of recreation offered. In Canada a similar type of organization - a Methodist camp - had been established in 1859 at Grimsby Park in Lincoln County, Ont, but by 1900 interest had declined and by 1909 it had ceased. In the USA, however, 'chautauquas' flourished: by 1900 there were some 200 independent chautauquas serving 31 states, almost all held in permanent pavilions close to lakes and offering lectures, plays, and concerts of religious, classical, and popular music."
The notion of making the chautauquas more accessible by sending them on the road was conceived by the US entrepreneurs Keith Vawter and J.R. Ellison, and in 1904 the first of the 'circuit' chautauquas, housed in portable brown tents, began its tour in the mid-west."
"Ellison left the Vawter-Redpath bureau in 1912 and joined Clarence H. White in establishing the Ellison-White Chautauqua Bureau, headquartered in Portland, Oregon" (Tapia, 81).
Ellison-White Chautauqua Bureau was also known as Ellison-White Lyceum and Chautauqua Association.
The bureau was known in Canada as Dominion Chautauquas. The firm may have also been incorporated as the Elwyn Concert Bureau, Inc.
[Source: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/emc/chautauqua]
[Source: John E. Tapia. Circuit Chautauqua: From Rural Education to Popular Entertainment in early twentieth century America. North Jefferson, Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc., 1997. Pg 81.]
Extent
4 linear feet (7 containers)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Travelling chautauqua shows offered lectures, plays, and concerts of religious, classical, and popular music, and in 1912, J.R. Ellison joined with Clarence H. White in establishing the Ellison-White Chautauqua Bureau, headquartered in Portland, Oregon. The collection contains seventeen scrapbooks (1931-1956) that include clippings, articles, programs, and other printed matter regarding the bureau's sponsored entertainment.
Arrangement
Material within this collection is arranged by date. Any arrangement derived from the records' creators or custodians. It may be necessary to look in multiple places for the same types of materials.
Physical Description
6 flat boxes, 1 oversize flat box
Processing Information
Collection processed by staff.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
This collection received a basic level of processing including minimal to no organization and rehousing.
Description information is drawn in part from information supplied with the collection and initial surveys of the contents.
- Articles Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Chautauquas Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Chautauquas -- Oregon -- Portland Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Clippings Subject Source: TGM II, Genre and physical characteristic terms
- Ellison, J. Roy
- Lyceums Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Lyceums -- Oregon -- Portland Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Oregon Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Performing Arts Subject Source: Archiveswest
- Scrapbooks Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Theater programs Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- White, Clarence H., 1874-1945
- Title
- Guide to the Ellison-White Chautauqua Bureau Scrapbooks
- Status
- Revise Description
- Author
- Tanya Parlet and Kira B. Homo
- Date
- 2013
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
- Sponsor
- Funding for production of this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).
Repository Details
Part of the University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives Repository
