"Our Distinguished Guests": Exhibit Overview

Bob Joly created this comprehensive overview of the first thirty years of guests for Athenaeum Hall and St Johnsbury as a whole -- the scope of the town's hunger for interaction with the wider world is amazing.

Our Distinguished Guests: Exploring the First 30 Years of Athenaeum Hall

This summer the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum will host, for the 17^th year, our series called Readings in the Gallery. These readings by noted poets and writers will take place this year, due to work in the art gallery, in the second floor space known officially as Athenaeum Hall.  This series, as well as the First Wednesday lectures, the Osher Life Long Learning Series, and the many other readings and performances held throughout the years,  are a continuation of the long tradition of free public events held here since Athenaeum Hall opened in 1871.  

This exhibit highlights some of the distinguished speakers and visitors who graced this building, in the earliest years of its operation.  It does, as well, situate the Athenaeum within the history of public lectures held throughout St. Johnsbury since the early 19^th Century, and within the tradition of public education in the lyceum and Chautauqua movements.

St. Johnsbury Lecture Halls

St. Johnsbury had a vibrant lecture and public debate tradition before the Athenaeum was added as an additional venue for such gatherings.  In The Town of St. Johnsbury --  A Review of One Hundred Twenty-Five Years to the Anniversary Pageant of 1912, Edward Fairbanks lists over a dozen different halls in existence between the opening of the new Town Hall in 1856 and the opening of the YMCA building in 1885.   Of particular note for their capacity were: the Music Hall which seated over 1100, the New Academy Hall with a capacity of 1250, and Howe’s Opera House with a capacity of 1500.

Athenaeum Hall was one of the smaller halls but has the distinction of being intended to be used for educative purposes only, without expense to the public (Fairbanks, p. 341.). 

The largest halls were filled by ticket holders who bid for the best seats, ticket sales providing the revenue to bring in the most renowned speakers available.  The practice of paying speakers to travel to an area is very much in the style of the lyceum movement.  Large, enthusiastic crowds and popular speakers made a modern functional hall a necessity.  Lack of such, in pre-1856 St. Johnsbury, is noted by Fairbanks in this unattributed quote, likely an editorial comment from the Caledonian Record:

September 8 1855 It is like enduring the tortures of the Black Hole to stay in the low unventilated dungeon of our Town Hall at the Center Village the air nauseated with smoke and exhalations from 700 pairs of lungs so that even the lamps go out for want of oxygen to keep them burning More than any necessity for County Buildings is our need of a new wholesome capacious Town Hall

The New Town Hall answered the call for such a facility beginning in 1856.  Many noted speakers and dignitaries, two presidents even, were feted at Athenaeum Hall when it became available in 1871.

Lyceum and Chautauqua Movements in St. Johnsbury and New England

The great capacity of the largest halls in St. Johnsbury indicates a ravenous appetite for the public lectures, debates, and entertainment in the tradition of the lyceum movement, a 19th-century American system of popular instruction of adults by lectures, concerts, and other methods.  The Lyceum movement was popular through out New England.  

This was a public education movement that began in the 1820s and is credited with promoting the establishment of public schools, libraries, and museums in the United States. The idea was conceived by Yale-educated teacher and lecturer Josiah Holbrook (1788-1854), who in 1826 set up the first "American Lyceum" in Millbury, Massachusetts. He named the program for the place-a grove near the temple of Apollo Lyceus-where the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 b.c.) taught his students. The lyceums, which were programs of regularly occurring lectures, proved to be the right idea at the right time: They got under way just after the completion of the Erie Canal (1825), which permitted the settlement of the nation's interior, just as the notion that universal, free education was imperative to the preservation of American democracy took hold. The movement spread quickly. At first the lectures were home-grown affairs, featuring local speakers. But as the movement grew, lyceum bureaus were organized, which sent paid lecturers to speak to audiences around the country. By 1834 there were approximately 3,000 in the Northeast and Midwest.  In their heyday the lyceums contributed to the broadening of the school curricula and the development of local museums and libraries.  After the Civil War (1861-65), the educational role of the lyceum movement was taken over by the Protestant-led chautauquas.

(http://www.answers.com/topic/what-was-the-lyceum-movement)

The Chautauqua Movement sought to bring learning, culture and, later, entertainment to the small towns and villages of America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Pre-Civil War roots of the effort existed in the lyceum movement, which paid prominent personalities handsomely to give speeches on religious, political and scientific topics to gatherings in the hinterlands. This was an approach to adult education that underscored the values of an era in which common people were expected to stay close to job and family. Enlightenment, if any, had to be taken to them. Travel and vacations were the preserves of the wealthy

Social changes occurring in post-war America included the emerging democratization of education. During the 1870s, the Methodist Episcopal Church held summer training sessions for its Sunday school teachers and other church workers. At the annual assembly of 1874, held at Lake Chautauqua in western New York State, it was decided to broaden the curriculum's frankly religious nature to include the arts, humanities and sciences. As the years passed, more emphasis was placed on singing groups, oompah bands, theatrical presentations and magic lantern shows. The advent of the railroads and their cheap fares had made it possible for working-class families to attend the sessions. The Chautauqua gatherings became a blend of a county fair and revival meeting. 


By the turn of the century, many communities had formed their own “chautauquas,” unrelated to the New York institution, that paid lecturers and performers to participate in their local events. Following World War I, the availability of automobiles, radio programming and motion pictures eroded the Chautauqua Movement's appeal. Independent local activities died out, but the national organization has continued on a reduced scale to the present day.  (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1202.html)

The St. Johnsbury Lecture Tradition

In The Town of St. Johnsbury Fairbanks describes the activities of The St Johnsbury Literary Institute beginning in 1850.  (It) was composed of citizens with a principal design of providing courses of lectures for public entertainment. In this the Institute was very successful and for several years courses of a high order of merit were maintained. There were lectures on history, literature, travel, invention, applied science, and kindred topics that filled the meeting house with interested listeners.

In 1851 the course was fourteen lectures, in 1854 there was a course of eleven lectures total expense $312.36.  Some years later the work of this Institute was taken up by the YMCA whose annual Lecture Course, maintained for forty years, became justly famous.

The Lecture Course inaugurated by the YMCA in 1858 and re-established in 1867 brought in an annual series of lectures and concerts of exceptional merit and distinction. It has been repeatedly remarked by non-residents that no other town of its size in New England has had so many distinguished speakers and musicians as this little village among the hills. Thro the generous patronage of citizens it was possible to secure talent of the first order.  This was true during the years when churches and Town Hall were the only places of assembly.  After the acquisition by the Association of Music Hall in 1884 there was a rising tide in the popular interest, every seat in the Hall being taken. Preliminary sales of course tickets were held at which premiums were paid for the choice of seats.

The following partial list of speakers in St. Johnsbury indicates the acclaim of the YMCA lecture series:  Henry Ward Beecher, Robert Collyer, John B Gough, Edward Everett Hale, Lyman Abbott, Booker Washington, Henry M Stanley, George Kennan, Robt E Peary, Gen Lew Wallace, Gen Jos Hawley, Russell H. Conwell, Gen Joshua Chamberlin, Gen Gordon of GA., Horace Greeley, Frederick Douglass, Jacob Riis, Bayard Taylor, Thomas Nast.

Fairbanks also notes the public events of the St. Johnsbury Woman’s Club.  Among public entertainments provided by the Woman's Club, not to speak of many musical ones, have been addresses or readings by Mrs. General Custer, Julia CR Dorr, Sallie Joy White, Kate Gannett Woods, Alice Freeman Palmer, Mabel Loomis Todd, Katherine Lee Bates, Isobel Strong, Frances Dyer, with now and then an interesting man on the rostrum for variety.

The Opening of Athenaeum Hall

The public opening of the Athenaeum was preceded by three addresses on successive evenings delivered in the Hall which was filled to its utmost capacity.  The first by Andrew E. Rankin Esq was on the educational importance of the library as a school of learning and culture.  The second by Lewis O Brastow, then pastor of the South Church, on the dignity and worth of refined literature.  The third by Edward T Fairbanks was a colloquy in which Bion Mago and Quelph talking together while inspecting the alcoves and dipping into the pages of the books gave an outline description of the treasures here stored for the use of the people.

The Athenaeum Hall was intended to be auxiliary to the educative use of the library. Series of popular lectures of special interest were provided.   Dr John Lord gave ten which are now included in his Beacon Lights of History.  Prof John Fiske gave a course on American History.  Prof WD Gunning a series on the Life History of our Planet. Lectures and concerts have been given under auspices of our home institutions The Hall was designed to serve the public benefit only and no entertainment for personal profit has ever been admitted. 

Among the most distinguished guests in Athenaeum Hall was the 23^rd President of the United States Benjamin Harrison.  He spoke from the now-gone front balcony on August 26, 1891.

While not all of the individuals named in this exhibit delivered talks here at the Athenaeum, may of the most well known were in all likelihood feted here with a reception.  In the late 19^th century the Fairbanks family and its namesake company was at the peak of its power and influence.  Erastus Fairbanks was, among many other roles, Governor of Vermont in 1852-1853, and again in 1860-1861, and his son, Horace, founder of the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, was Governor in 1876-1877. 

The St. Johnsbury Caledonian has this to say regarding the Athenaeum in its December 1, 1871 issue:

The present week has been a proud one for St. Johnsbury. The long-cherished plan of one of our honored citizens, of erecting a Free Public Library and presenting it to his native town, has this week been consummated….  As announced in the last Caledonian, a short course of lectures was commences at Athenaeum Hall, on Thursday evening Nov. 23^rd, preliminary to the opening of the library to the public.  At the hour appointed the hall  was filled solid full with an audience of about six hundred our four citizens, attracted together with the treble thought of hearing the lecture, seeing the new hall, and doing honor to the giver.  The audience was surprised at the outset by a flute trio, after which Mr. Horace Fairbanks welcomed those assembled in a few choice words, expressing his gratitude at their attendance, and introduced the lecturer for the evening, Mr. A. E. Rankin.

Thus began the tradition of free public lectures in Athenaeum Hall that continues to this day.

The Exhibit Takes Shape ...

Here's today's glimpse of the "exhibit in progress" as Athenaeum expert Bob Joly mounts images and displays books; in the glassed case are also the Athenaeum guest book with President Harrison's signature proudly displayed, and the handwritten pages of the (very long indeed!) lecture that Horace Fairbanks gave at the opening of the Athenaeum.

A Pictorial Glimpse of the 1880s: Underclyffe

Theses images, from the archives held by the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium (one of the collaborators with the Athenaeum in the St. Johnsbury Archives), show the family of Franklin Fairbanks at the family home, Underclyffe -- and a wider view of the mansion itself, with its "hothouses" (greenhouses). Franklin was the younger brother of Horace; Horace, as pictured in the right-hand column, was the Fairbanks who gave the Athenaeum and its original collections to the town.

Visualizing Underclyffe (now gone) helps in picturing the arrival of distinguished guest coming to speak in St. Johnsbury. Not only can we see the family's appearance and the large scale on which they experienced and built cultural assets, but we know that one pattern for welcoming guests would have been to meet them at the railroad depot at the foot of the town (near the river), take them in a carriage along the loveliest and most prosperous roads, and end up at Underclyffe for a meal, before heading to the Athenaeum or one of the adjacent halls (Y.M.C.A., music hall) to give a public lecture.

Underclyffe was designed by architect Lambert Packard; elements of its design are also found in the Athenaem, as shown in the right-hand column.

Horace Greeley Versus Thomas Nast: Docent Sheet

Battle of Opinions: Horace Greeley and Thomas Nast

            In the 1800s, America’s most famous journalist was Horace Greeley, founder of The New York Tribune. The nation’s leading cartoonist – often referred to as the first real editorial cartoonist – at that time was Thomas Nast. And both of these giants of the public press would visit St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

            Horace Greeley was born in Amherst, New Hampshire, the son of poor farmers. He left school at age 14 and apprenticed in Poultney, Vermont, as a printer at The Northern Star. After moving to New York City when he was 20, he went on to found a weekly digest of other magazines’ news, The New Yorker. His great fame would come after 1841, when he merged his newspapers into The New York Tribune (which would last, in some form, until 1967). Determined to make his paper different from the tabloids of the time, Greeley created modern American journalism by combining “energy in news gathering with good taste, high moral standards, and intellectual appeal” (Nevins, Dictionary of American Biography, 1931). Already a lecturer himself, he featured the lectures of others.

            In 1854 the new Republican Party was founded, and Greeley spoke for it with the Tribune – especially by opposing slavery and slave owners. During the Civil War, he demanded that Lincoln take a stand for emancipation. But after the Civil War ended, he seemed to soften his views, arguing for release of former Confederacy president Jefferson Davis and saying the South had already changed far enough.

            German-born cartoonist Thomas Nast, who came to America at age 16 and whose cartoons in Harper’s Weekly through the 1860s supported the Civil War’s Union forces and the post-war Reconstruction, also successfully used his talents toward the downfall of corrupt New York City politician Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall. In general, his cartoons supported American Indians, Chinese Americans, and the abolition of slavery, and opposed segregation, the violence of the Ku Klux Klan, and the ignorance of voters who supported corruption (he included Irish Americans in this).

            When Horace Greeley ran against Ulysses Grant for the US. Presidency in 1872, Nast mounted a relentless campaign of ridicule against the newspaper owner and his views, labeling him as a killer of black Americans. The cartoonist’s campaign was so merciless that not only did Greeley’s campaign fail, but Horace Greeley suffered a complete mental and physical breakdown, and died just weeks after the election.

            Greeley’s visit to St. Johnsbury was surely during his campaign in 1872. Nast toured the United States in 1873 and again in 1885 and 1887, and his visit to St. Johnsbury included discussion of his cartoons, which were described with delight by the Caledonian-Record at the time.

President Abraham Lincoln’s Letter to Horace Greeley, a year into the Civil War:
 
Executive Mansion,
Washington, August 22, 1862.

Hon. Horace Greeley:
Dear Sir.

I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right.

As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing" as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.

Yours,
A. Lincoln.

Alice Freeman Palmer: Draft for Docents

Alice Freeman Palmer, First Woman as President of a Noted American College

Alice Elvira Freeman’s father was a farmer when his daughter was born in 1855, but saw that he needed a better career and enrolled in medical school when Alice was six years old. He completed his M.D. in three years, and Alice followed his example by deciding to attend college herself, eventually entering the University of Michigan and excelling there. She had barely started her teaching career at age 22 when her father’s bad mining investment plunged him into bankruptcy. Alice became the support of her family, even as she rose to become principal of a high school in Saginaw, Michigan.

Henry Durant had founded Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1870, and by 1877 he had noticed Alice Freeman’s work. It took him two years to persuade her to joint the faculty at Wellesley as head of the history department, where she quickly became a favorite with students. In October 1881, she was named vice-president and acting president of the college, and at Durant’s death she was elected its president.

She was only 26 years old, and was the first woman to head a nationally known college. The University of Michigan awarded her an honorary Ph.D. to go with her new and controversial position – many people then didn’t think women should even go to college at all!

When Alice Freeman met George Herbert Palmer, the pair fell in love and soon became secretly engaged to marry. Alice dared not wear a ring or otherwise announce the engagement, because it would mean the end of her position. A woman leader at Wellesley was not expected to take the secondary role to a man that marriage would demand. But word slowly leaked out, so with her marriage in 1887, she resigned, leaving a legacy of stronger academics and a broad curriculum in liberal arts.

The new University of Chicago recruited her, even though married, and in 1892 she became dean of its women’s department. For three years she stayed in Chicago, but her husband had refused to leave Cambridge, so Alice at last resigned and came home.

Tragically, a surgical operation to repair a problem with her liver ended her life in 1903. She had put so much into her 48 years! A service at Harvard University commemorated her and was attended by college presidents and others of note.

Along with her development of the two colleges, Alice Freeman Palmer also founded the American Association of University Women. It is likely that her visit to St. Johnsbury, arranged by the local Women’s Club, was in the late 1890s. After her death, in 1920 she was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, and in World War II the United States Liberty ship SS Alice F. Palmer was named in her honor.

* * *

from WHY GO TO COLLEGE? an Address by Alice Freeman Palmer, circa 1898

To a largely increasing number of young girls college doors are opening every year. Every year adds to the number of men who feel as a friend of mine, a successful lawyer in a great city, felt when in talking of the future of his four little children he said, "For the two boys it is not so serious, but I lie down at night afraid to die and leave my daughters only a bank account." Year by year, too, the experiences of life are teaching mothers that happiness does not necessarily come to their daughters when accounts are large and banks are sound, but that on the contrary they take grave risks when they trust everything to accumulated wealth and the chance of a happy marriage. Our American girls themselves are becoming aware that they need the stimulus, the discipline, the knowledge, the interests of the college in addition to the school, if they are to prepare themselves for the most serviceable lives. …
While it is not true that all girls should go to college any more than that all boys should go, it is nevertheless true that they should go in greater numbers than at present. They fail to go because they, their parents and their teachers, do not see clearly the personal benefits distinct from the commercial value of a college training. I wish here to discuss these benefits, these larger gifts of the college life,—what they may be, and for whom they are waiting.
It is undoubtedly true that many girls are totally unfitted by home and school life for a valuable college course. These joys and successes, these high interests and friendships, are not for the self-conscious and nervous invalid, nor for her who in the exuberance of youth recklessly ignores the laws of a healthy life. The good society of scholars and of libraries and laboratories has no place and no attraction for her who finds no message in Plato, no beauty in mathematical order, and who never longs to know the meaning of the stars over her head or the flowers under her feet. Neither will the finer opportunities of college life appeal to one who, until she is eighteen (is there such a girl in this country?), has felt no passion for the service of others, no desire to know if through history or philosophy, or any study of the laws of society, she can learn why the world is so sad, so hard, so selfish as she finds it, even when she looks upon it from the most sheltered life. No, the college cannot be, should not try to be, a substitute for the hospital, reformatory or kindergarten. …
Pre-eminently the college is a place of education. That is the ground of its being. We go to college to know, assured that knowledge is sweet and powerful, that a good education emancipates the mind and makes us citizens of the world. No college which does not thoroughly educate can be called good, no matter what else it does. No student who fails to get a little knowledge on many subjects, and much knowledge on some, can be said to have succeeded, whatever other advantages she may have found by the way. It is a beautiful and significant fact that in all times the years of learning have been also the years of romance. Those who love girls and boys pray that our colleges may be homes of sound learning, for knowledge is the condition of every college blessing.

A Visit from the Author of Ben Hur: Docent Material

Lew Wallace, Author of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

Maybe you’ve seen the 1959 version of the film Ben-Hur starring Charlton Heston – and marveled at the movie’s most famous scene, the chariot race. The movie is based on an 1880 novel by General Lew Wallace, and in December 1896, General Wallace came to visit St. Johnsbury and deliver a talk on “Turkey and the Turks, with glimpses of life in the palace and harem.” But the Caledonian-Record was clear about what really made this man famous: “Gen. Wallace will attract the attention of our people, who already know him as the author of Ben-Hur,” said the local newspaper.

Thank goodness for this authorship, which came along just in time to rescue Wallace from his depressing military reputation. During the Civil War, he led his division in a fiasco at the Battle of Shiloh – possibly because General Grant hadn’t been specific in his orders. Regardless of whether the division’s location was Wallace’s mistake or Grant’s, it meant that the reserves arrived too late to prevent horrible casualties that day. And when word of the disaster reached civilians, the Army chose to blame Wallace, calling him incompetent and removing his from his command.

In 1864, again commanding a large force of almost six thousand men, Wallace took part in delaying a Confederate advance on Washington, DC. Technically his forces were defeated, and again he was humiliated by being relieved of his command. But this time, he got it back again after Grant praised his work in delaying Confederate General Jubal Early, making it possible for Grant to pull together a defense for the capital city.

Later he became governor of New Mexico Territory from 1878 to 1881 and negotiated with the notorious outlaw Billy the Kid – and went on to be U.S. Minister to the Ottoman Empire (the Turks), for four years. Yet the blow of his war years still burned.

Writing Ben-Hur, which was the story of a young Jewish noble whose disastrous life is finally redeemed and set right through Jesus Christ, Wallace took the themes of friendship, betrayal, revenge, love, and redemption and, with passion doubtless from his own life, created a stirring novel that hasn’t ever gone out of print. It quickly became a play also, and then a short film, followed by an amazing Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film in 1925. The most exciting part of the film, the chariot race, was created by allowing stunt men to actually race chariots with horses in California – a Hollywood spectacle in the flesh. A cash prize was offered for the winning stunt driver. One chariot capsized, causing others to crash, and although no people were killed, seven horses had to be “put down” due to their injuries. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was outraged, but the reality of injuries and bloodshed helped make the film a blockbuster for its time, actually earning back the $4 million that M-G-M spent to make it.

Wallace died in 1905, so he never saw the film versions of his work. But when he arrived here in St. Johnsbury, the welcome he received as an author must have given some comfort to his shamed and wounded soul.

From Ben-Hur, chapter XIV, “The Race”:


WHEN the dash for position began, Ben-Hur, as we have seen, was on the extreme left of the six. For a moment, like the others, he was half-blinded by the light in the arena; yet he managed to catch sight of his antagonists and divine their purpose. At Messala, who was more than an antagonist to him, he gave one searching look. The air of passionless hauteur characteristic of the fine patrician face was there as of old, and so was the Italian beauty, which the helmet rather increased; but more-it may have been a jealous fancy, or the effect of the brassy shadow in which the features were at the moment cast, still the Israelite thought he saw the soul of the man as through a glass, darkly: cruel, cunning, desperate; not so excited as determined-a soul in a tension of watchfulness and fierce resolve.
    In a time not longer than was required to turn to his four again, Ben-Hur felt his own resolution harden to a like temper. At whatever cost, at all hazards, he would humble this enemy! Prize, friends, wagers, honour-everything that can be thought of as a possible interest in the race was lost in the one deliberate purpose. Regard for life even should not hold him back. Yet there was no passion on his part; no blinding rush of heated blood from heart to brain, and back again; no impulse to fling himself upon Fortune: he did not believe in Fortune; far otherwise. He had his plan, and, confiding in himself, he settled to the task never more observant, never more capable. The air about him seemed aglow with a renewed and perfect transparency.
    When not half-way across the arena, he saw that Messala's rush would, if there was no collision, and the rope fell, give him the wall; that the rope would fall, he ceased as soon to doubt; and, further, it came to him, a sudden flash-like insight, that Messala knew it was to be let drop at the last moment (pre-arrangement with the editor could safely reach that point in the contest); and it suggested, what more Roman-like than for the official to lend himself to a countryman who, besides being so popular, had also so much at stake? There could be no other accounting for the confidence with which Messala pushed his four forward the instant his competitors were prudentially checking their fours in front of the obstruction-no other except madness. …
     The rope fell, and all the four but his sprang into the course under urgency of voice and lash. He drew head to the right, and, with all the speed of his Arabs, darted across the trails of his opponents, the angle of movement being such as to lose the least time and gain the greatest possible advance. So, while the spectators were shivering at the Athenian's mishap, and the Sidonian, Byzantine, and Corinthian were striving, with such skill as they possessed, to avoid involvement in the ruin, Ben-Hur swept around and took the course neck and neck with Messala, though on the outside. The marvellous skill shown in making the change thus from the extreme left across to the right without appreciable loss did not fail the sharp eyes upon the benches: the Circus seemed to rock and rock again with prolonged applause. Then Esther clasped her hands in glad surprise; then Sanballat, smiling, offered his hundred sestertii a second time without a taker; and then the Romans began to doubt, thinking Messala might have found an equal, if not a master, and that in an Israelite! …
       "Down Eros, up Mars!" [Messala] shouted, whirling his lash with practised hand-"Down Eros, up Mars!" he repeated, and caught the well-doing Arabs of Ben-Hur a cut the like of which they had never known.
    The blow was seen in every quarter, and the amazement was universal. The silence deepened; up on the benches behind the consul the boldest held his breath, waiting for the outcome. Only a moment thus: then, involuntarily, down from the balcony, as thunder falls, burst the indignant cry of the people.
    The four sprang forward affrighted. No hand had ever been laid upon them except in love; they had been nurtured ever so tenderly; and as they grew, their confidence in man became a lesson to men beautiful to see. What should such dainty natures do under such indignity but leap as from death?

Our Distinguished Guests: Exploring the First 30 Years of Athenaeum Hall OVERVIEW DOCUMENT

Our Distinguished Guests:  Exploring the First 30 Years of Athenaeum Hall

(Color key:  Black highlight = docent sheet and picture for panels, Red = text sheets, photos, etc, to be mounted on panels, Blue = books, manuscript, etc. to go in large locked case in front of panels.  We’ll keep updating this as needed.)

This summer the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum will host, for the 17^th consecutive year, our series called Readings in the Gallery. These readings by noted poets and writers will take place this year, due to work in the art gallery, in the second floor space known officially as Athenaeum Hall.  This series, as well as the First Wednesday lectures, and the many other readings and performances held throughout the years,  are a continuation of the long tradition of free public events held here since Athenaeum Hall opened in 1871. 

This exhibit highlights some of the distinguished speakers and visitors who graced this building in the earliest years of its operation.  It does, as well, situate the Athenaeum within the history of public lectures held throughout St. Johnsbury since the early 19^th Century, and within the tradition of public education in the lyceum and Chautauqua movements.

St. Johnsbury Lecture Halls

St. Johnsbury had a vibrant lecture and public debate tradition before the Athenaeum was added as an additional venue for such gatherings.  In The Town of St. Johnsbury --  A Review of One Hundred Twenty-Five Years to the Anniversary Pageant of 1912, Edward Fairbanks lists over a dozen different halls in existence between the opening of the new Town Hall in 1856 and the opening of the YMCA building in 1885.   Of particular note for their capacity are: the Music Hall which seated over 1100, the New Academy Hall with a capacity of 1250, and Howe’s Opera House with a capacity of 1500.   Athenaeum Hall was one of the smaller halls but has the distinction of being intended to be used for educative purposes only, without expense to the public (Fairbanks, p. 341.). 

The largest halls were filled by ticket holders who bid for the best seats, ticket sales providing the revenue to bring in the most renowned speakers available.  The practice of paying speakers to travel to an area is very much in the style of the lyceum movement.  Large, enthusiastic crowds and popular speakers made a modern functional hall a necessity.  Lack of such, in pre-1856 St. Johnsbury, is noted by Fairbanks in this quote from ________

September 8 1855 It is like enduring the tortures of the Black Hole to stay in the low unventilated dungeon of our Town Hall at the Center Village the air nauseated with smoke and exhalations from 700 pairs of lungs so that even the lamps go out for want of oxygen to keep them burning More than any necessity for County Buildings is our need of a new wholesome capacious Town Hall

The New Town Hall answered the call for such a facility beginning in 1856.  Many noted speakers and dignitaries, two presidents even, were fated at Athenaeum Hall when it became available in 1871.

Lyceum and Chautauqua Movements in St. Johnsbury and New England

The great capacity of the largest halls in St. Johnsbury indicates a ravenous appetite for the public lectures, debates, and entertainment in the tradition of the lyceum movement, a 19th-century American system of popular instruction of adults by lectures, concerts, and other methods.

This was a public education movement that began in the 1820s and is credited with promoting the establishment of public schools, libraries, and museums in the United States. The idea was conceived by Yale-educated teacher and lecturer Josiah Holbrook (1788-1854), who in 1826 set up the first "American Lyceum" in Millbury, Massachusetts. He named the program for the place-a grove near the temple of Apollo Lyceus-where the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 b.c.) taught his students. The lyceums, which were programs of regularly occurring lectures, proved to be the right idea at the right time: They got under way just after the completion of the Erie Canal (1825), which permitted the settlement of the nation's interior, just as the notion that universal, free education was imperative to the preservation of American democracy took hold. The movement spread quickly. At first the lectures were home-grown affairs, featuring local speakers. But as the movement grew, lyceum bureaus were organized, which sent paid lecturers to speak to audiences around the country. By 1834 there were approximately 3,000 in the Northeast and Midwest.  In their heyday the lyceums contributed to the broadening of the school curricula and the development of local museums and libraries.  After the Civil War (1861-65), the educational role of the lyceum movement was taken over by the Protestant-led chautauquas.

The Chautauqua Movement sought to bring learning, culture and, later, entertainment to the small towns and villages of America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Pre-Civil War roots of the effort existed in the lyceum movement, which paid prominent personalities handsomely to give speeches on religious, political and scientific topics to gatherings in the hinterlands. This was an approach to adult education that underscored the values of an era in which common people were expected to stay close to job and family. Enlightenment, if any, had to be taken to them. Travel and vacations were the preserves of the wealthy.
Social changes occurring in post-war America included the emerging democratization of education. During the 1870s, the Methodist Episcopal Church held summer training sessions for its Sunday school teachers and other church workers. At the annual assembly of 1874, held at Lake Chautauqua in western New York State, it was decided to broaden the curriculum's frankly religious nature to include the arts, humanities and sciences. As the years passed, more emphasis was placed on singing groups, oompah bands, theatrical presentations and magic lantern shows. The advent of the railroads and their cheap fares had made it possible for working-class families to attend the sessions. The Chautauqua gatherings became a blend of a county fair and revival meeting.
By the turn of the century, many communities had formed their own “chautauquas,” unrelated to the New York institution, that paid lecturers and performers to participate in their local events.Following World War I, the availability of automobiles, radio programming and motion pictures eroded the Chautauqua Movement's appeal. Independent local activities died out, but the national organization has continued on a reduced scale to the present day.

The St. Johnsbury Lecture Tradition

In The Town of St. Johnsbury Fairbanks describes the activities of The St Johnsbury Literary Institute beginning in 1850.  (It) was composed of citizens with a principal design of providing courses of lectures for public entertainment. In this the Institute was very successful and for several years courses of a high order of merit were maintained. There were lectures on history, literature, travel, invention, applied science, and kindred topics that filled the meeting house with interested listeners.

 In 1851 the course was fourteen lectures, in 1854 there was a course of eleven lectures total expense $312.36.  Some years later the work of this Institute was taken up by the YMCA whose annual Lecture Course, maintained for forty years, became justly famous.

The Lecture Course inaugurated by the YMCA in 1858 and re-established in 1867 brought in an annual series of lectures and concerts of exceptional merit and distinction. It has been repeatedly remarked by non-residents that no other town of its size in New England has had so many distinguished speakers and musicians as this little village among the hills. Thro the generous patronage of citizens it was possible to secure talent of the first order.  This was true during the years when churches and Town Hall were the only places of assembly.  After the acquisition by the Association of Music Hall in 1884 there was a rising tide in the popular interest, every seat in the Hall being taken. Preliminary sales of course tickets were held at which premiums were paid for the choice of seats.

The following partial list of speakers in St. Johnsbury indicates the acclaim of the YMCA lecture series:  Henry Ward Beecher, Robert Collyer, John B Gough, Edward Everett Hale, Lyman Abbott, Booker Washington, Henry M Stanley, George Kennan, Robt E Peary, Gen Lew Wallace, Gen Jos Hawley, Russell H. Conwell, Gen Joshua Chamberlin, Gen Gordon of GA., Horace Greeley, Frederick Douglass, Jacob Riis, Bayard Taylor, Thomas Nast.

Fairbanks also notes the public events of the St. Johnsbury Woman’s Club.  Among public entertainments provided by the Woman's Club not to speak of many musical ones have been addresses or readings by Mrs. General Custer, Julia CR Dorr, Sallie Joy White, Kate Gannett Woods, Alice Freeman Palmer, Mabel Loomis Todd, Katherine Lee Bates, Isobel Strong, Frances Dyer, with now and then an interesting man on the rostrum for variety.

The Opening of Athenaeum Hall

The public opening of the Athenaeum was preceded by three addresses on successive evenings delivered in the Hall which was filled to its utmost capacity.  The first by Andrew E Rankin Esq was on the educational importance of the library as a school of learning and culture.  The second by Lewis O Brastow, then pastor of the South Church, on the dignity and worth of refined literature.  The third by Edward T Fairbanks was a colloquy in which Bion Mago and Quelph talking together while inspecting the alcoves and dipping into the pages of the books gave an outline description of the treasures here stored for the use of the people

The Athenaeum Hall was intended to be auxiliary to the educative use of the library. Series of popular lectures of special interest were provided.   Dr John Lord gave ten which are now included in his Beacon Lights of History.  Prof John Fiske gave a course on American History.  Prof WD Gunning a series on the Life History of our Planet. Lectures and concerts have been given under auspices of our home institutions The Hall was designed to serve the public benefit only and no entertainment for personal profit has ever been admitted.  Among the most distinguished guests in Athenaeum Hall was the 23^rd President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison who spoke from the now-gone front balcony on August 26, 1891.

Conclusion, Activities today, etc

(TO BE COMPLETED BY BOB BEFORE 6/25)

Two paragraphs on Lyceum and Chautauqua tradition.

Three paragraphs on information taken largely from Edward Fairbanks’ The Town of St. Johsnbury.

·       History of lectures in Town Hall—quote on how decrepit old TH was, other Halls

·       Prominent lecturers in town during 40-year YMCA lecture series

·       Athenaeum founding and use—intended to be used for educative purposes only, without expense to the public (Fairbanks, p. 341)

One paragraph conclusion

·       Continuing tradition of lectures at Athenaeum

·       One of the last buildings in continuous use

·       Reiteration of main points