Tag Archives: Jon Schmitz
Oliver Archives Center assistant Amanda Holt reads and organizes the Miller Family Papers before the collection is sent to Rutgers University to become part of the Thomas A. Edison Papers Project. Photo by Michelle Kanaar.

Miller Family Papers to add Chautauqua chapter to Edison project

August 26, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Sometime in the next months, the 16 gray coffin-like archival boxes holding the Miller Family Papers will leave the Oliver Archives Center in Chautauqua, N.Y., and journey to Rutgers University, N.J., to become part of the Thomas A. Edison Papers Project at Rutgers.

A note of clarification is required. The Miller Family Papers are the collected correspondence, diaries and memorabilia of the family of Lewis Miller, one of Chautauqua Institution’s founders. The papers include the letters of Mina Miller Edison, the second wife of Thomas Edison. The Thomas A. Edison Papers Project is a research center based at Rutgers University, and it is described as “one of the most ambitious editing projects ever undertaken by an American university.”

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History/Archives
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Greatest_Stories_Never_Told

CLSC Young Readers program saves ‘The Greatest’ for last

August 22, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Did you know that three days before his assassination, President Abraham Lincoln had a dream about his death?

Or that Lincoln’s son Robert Todd Lincoln was present at four presidential assassinations?

Those interesting tidbits and more are in the ninth and final book for this season’s Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle’s Young Readers Program. Award-winning documentarian and historian Rick Beyer’s The Greatest Presidential Stories Never Told is filled with facts that will prove valuable in your next trivial pursuit.

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Literary Arts
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White

Grant, a strong and gentle man who enjoyed novels

August 21, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

The experiment at Fair Point did not happen without help. John Heyl Vincent and Lewis Miller knew people — they had earned attention.

For example, Vincent knew Ulysses S. Grant, a general, a parishioner, a president. And through Vincent’s arrangement, Grant came to Chautauqua in 1875 while he was president. His visit earned attention for the fledgling Institution and could be credited with much of the Institution’s early success.

To speak of Grant, his early association with Vincent and Chautauqua, and to share his early findings as he researches and writes a book about Grant, Ronald White will give a talk titled “Grant at West Point: ‘Much of the time, I’m sorry to say, was devoted to novels.’ ”

As part of the Oliver Archives Heritage Lecture Series, White will speak today at 3:30 p.m. in the Hall of Christ. White is an award winning author — his most recent book, A. Lincoln: A Biography, was published in 2009 and is a New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times bestseller.

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Carol Duehme, Jon Schmitz, Will Glover and David Strange pose in the Oliver Archives Center with a copy of The Journey of the English-Speaking Union. Photo by Adam Birkan.

Bell Tower Scholars bring history of English-Speaking Union to Chautauqua

August 21, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Will Glover has made the journey to the Chautauqua Institution since 1998, but this year’s trip was punctuated with a number of special events. Adorned in white, he graduated from the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, and on July 30, he presented Chautauqua’s Archives with a copy of Gerard Noel’s The Journey of the English-Speaking Union, a book chronicling the 90-year history of the organization responsible for his introduction to Chautauqua.

An economist, writer and teacher, Glover was the recipient of the Bell Tower Scholarship in 1998, an award presented to a teacher from the ESU for professional development. The award includes tuition and boarding for up to four weeks at Chautauqua and a stipend for travel expenses. Chautauquan Carol Duhme funds the annual scholarship.

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Sherra Babcock, director of the Department of Education and Youth Services, announces four of the 2012 CLSC selections at Bryant Day 2011. Daily file photo.

Bryant Day celebrations chime in the new reading season

August 18, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

This weekend, Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle graduates will ring the Bryant Bell to commence the new reading year in celebration of Bryant Day.

A ceremony with the Alumni Association begins at 11:30 a.m. Saturday by Miller Bell Tower, and Sherra Babcock, director of the Department of Education, will announce a few CLSC selections for 2013. Taking inspiration from next season’s focus on Romeo and Juliet in Chautauqua’s fine and performing arts, 2013 CLSC books will celebrate the themes, broadly construed, from Shakespearean classics.

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Literary Arts
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To believe or not to believe: Schmitz discusses Chautauqua and atheism

August 17, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

To believe. To have faith. It can be difficult.

H.L. Mencken said “Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.”

St. Francis of Assisi said, “Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith.”

So much for the gray area: Now consider atheists.

To put a historical perspective on the enigma of belief, Jon Schmitz, archivist and historian for Chautauqua, will present “Atheism at Chautauqua” at 3:30 p.m. today in the Hall of Christ.

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History/Archives
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Roots of Chautauqua: radical to see and to understand

August 14, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

It takes one to know one; that is truism. To see, one must understand; to understand, one must see: that is truth. Or is it French? Or is it radical?

“Too often, ‘radical’ has been taken to be someone who is left-wing or using extreme means to accomplish reform,” said Jon Schmitz, Chautauqua archivist and historian. “But it really means someone going to the root of the matter to solve a problem.”

Schmitz will present “Four Radicals at Chautauqua: Fr. Edward McGlynn on the Single Tax, Arabella B. Buckley on Modernism in Religion, John Dewey on Education, Arnold Schoenberg and Serialism.”

Part of the Oliver Archives Heritage Lecture Series, the presentation is at 3:30 p.m. today in the Hall of Christ.

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On immigration to America: a 1920s vision and Chautauqua response

July 24, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Although a hot topic today, immigration to the United States is not a new controversy. American history, as much as it is about anything, is a history of immigration and migration. Chautauqua Institution has not been immune to that.

Jon Schmitz, Chautauqua archivist and historian, will explore the early 20th century situation and its relationship to Chautauqua at 3:30 p.m. today in the Hall of Christ. His talk, “Unity in Diversity: Chautauqua and the Immigration Question in 1920s America,” is part of the Oliver Archives Heritage Lecture Series.

Included in the presentation will be a screening of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs’ “Patriotic Pageant,” filmed at Chautauqua in 1923. The film represents a Chautauqua reaction to immigration. Anna Pennybacker, then-president of the Chautauqua Women’s Club and a former president and board member of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, had the idea for a long time.

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