Arts and Crafts Building
Miller Bell Tower
In 1896 the schools were again reorganized under Dr. Harper's supervision. The School of Fine Arts and the New York Summer Institute for Teachers were new departments, the latter under the direction of the Regents of the New York State University. The School of Sacred Literature was increased in its faculty, having among them President Harper, Professor Shailer Mathews, and Professor D. A. McClenahan of the United Presbyterian Theological School. Prominent among the lecturers this year were Dr. George Adam Smith of Scotland, Dr. Gunsaulus, Rev. S. Parkes Cadman, Dr. Booker T. Washington, Rev. Dr. George A. Gordon, Dr. Charles F. Aked, then of England, but soon to become an American, Professor F. G. Peabody, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, soon afterward the President of Columbia University, and Dr. Russell H. Conwell. A lady appeared on the platform whose experience had been unlike that of any other woman in the land. This was Mrs. Robert E. Peary, who accompanied her husband on one of his North Pole explorations and had a daughter born within the polar circle—"The snow baby," as she was called. She gave a lecture with stereopticon views descriptive of the life in the frozen North. Another woman gave a lecture this year upon her travels in Equatorial Africa, Miss Jessie T. Ackerman. President Charles W. Eliot of Harvard University gave the oration on Recognition Day, his subject being "America's Contribution to Civilization." In looking through the list of the speakers on Recognition Day, I find the names of no less than ten college presidents, and also that of the Hon. William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, who might be regarded as standing at the head of the nation's educational system. The value of Chautauqua as a force in education has been fully recognized by the highest authorities.
FOOTNOTE:
[2] From the Handbook of Information published by the Chautauqua Institution (1918) we give the following extract. "The Chautauqua tradition which taboos card playing and social dancing, and the rule which forbids the sale or importation of alcoholic beverages, disclose the influence which dominated the early life of the Assembly. As to card playing and dancing, the tradition is preserved not because all agree in condemning these things in themselves, but because they are deemed unsuitable to Chautauqua conditions and even hostile to its life. It is believed that they would prove divisive and distracting, and that they suggest a very different type of society from that which Chautauqua seeks to set up for a few summer weeks. Chautauqua, therefore, disapproves these diversions as not only unnecessary, but as involving disintegrating influences. The fact that many who indulge in these amusements at home express gratification that they are not permitted at Chautauqua is significant."