Margaret B. Franklin Papers, 1883 – 1992

Ms. Collection No. 757

• Biographical Sketch
• Historical Sketch of Chautauquas
• Scope and Content
• Collection Summary
• Outline
• Container List

Biographical Sketch

Margaret Lavona (Barnum) Franklin, was born in Caldwell, Kansas, on June 19, 1905. She became a school teacher and taught in a variety of places in Iowa and Nebraska.

For several years, Margaret Franklin either performed in or worked for the Chautauqua. She performed in at least two singing groups: the Marine Maids and Uncle Sam’s Nieces. She also worked for the Chautauqua as both a junior supervisor, someone who supervised and entertained children to prevent them from misbehaving during a Chautauqua performance, and as a advance girl, an agent who preceded a Chautauqua show to its appointed town to set up the necessary arrangements.

In 1940, she married Charles Benjamin Franklin, a direct descendent of the famed early American statesman / scientist / philosopher. The Franklins had two children; Margaret Lee, born in 1941, and Benjamin Barnum, born in 1943.

Following their marriage, the Franklins lived for a year in New York City; then Stamford, Connecticut; then settled in Topeka, Kansas, permanently.

Mrs. Franklin was a member of a variety of different social and community service clubs and also spent a great deal of time traveling around the world.

She died September 11, 1997 , in Topeka.

Historical Sketch of Chautauquas

The origins of “Chautauqua” go back to a place once called Fair Point, a small village on the shores of Lake Chautauqua in western New York.

Lewis Miller, an industrialist from Akron, Ohio, and an enthusiastic lay leader and Sunday school superintendent with the Methodist Episcopal Church, began corresponding with John Heyl Vincent to develop a plan for a training seminar for Sunday school teachers. In the nineteenth century, as public schools were still in the process of developing standards and curricula, Sunday schools served a valuable and important part of children’s education. Rev. Vincent originally intended that they stage their program in Miller’s home town, Akron. But Miller, who was on the Chautauqua Lake Camp Meeting Association, was familiar with the picturesque and bucolic setting of the Chautauqua Lake area, and furthermore felt that having the seminar in an outdoor setting would be an important part of the learning environment.

This first Chautauqua Institute, a decidedly Christian institution, convened on August 4, 1874, and attracted approximately two thousand people of a wide variety of Christian denominations and from many states.

The sessions of the Chautauqua Lake Sunday School Assembly were taught by clergy who were recognized authorities in their specialized areas of study. The resulting education which the participants received was solid and well grounded by the end of the seminars.

In the years since the founding of the Chautauqua Institute, the character of the institution has changed somewhat. Chautauqua schedules of events, later spanning over sixty days each summer, included concerts, entertainers, ballets and operatic performances and public speakers of a more secular, artistic, cultural, and less religious tone. Nevertheless, denominational headquarters for a wide variety of Christian churches are located at Chautauqua, New York, and exert their influence there.

It was this metamorphosis to a more entertaining atmosphere that led to the development of the traveling tent shows, also known as Chautauquas, in the early part of the twentieth century.

To say the least, the Chautauqua idea was an idea that “caught on,” and in a big way. Within just a few years, Chautauquas were to found situated in parks or near pastoral lakeside settings across the United States, particularly the West and Midwest. A few of the locations where Chautauquas sprang up were Petosky, Michigan; Clear Lake, Iowa; Lakeside, Ohio; Lake Bluff, Illinois; Ottawa, Kansas; and Montana, California.

The year 1904 was an important turning point in Chautauqua history. In that year, S. M. Holliday, of Indianola, Iowa, organized the Midland Chautauqua, the first “circuit chautauqua.” This Chautauqua was a mobile one, which convened under an enormous canvas tent, and moved from place to place along a scheduled circuit.

Why were Chautauquas so popular in the Western areas? Considering how provincial and primitive towns, and rural areas even more so, were at that time, life often consisted of little more than work and isolated loneliness. This was before the days of radio, stereos, television, the Internet, cars, or sound movies. Entertainment consisted of what someone could provide for him- or herself. Rural Western areas were particularly isolated, and many were usually out of reach of even a circulating library, dance hall, or theater.

In terms of education, most people had little schooling besides a few years of grammar school. The traveling Chautauquas offered a nontraditional educational experience appreciated by adults.

Under these circumstances, when news came around that a Chautauqua — with music, stimulating public speakers, dance troupes from around the world, entertainers, and comic theatrics — was coming to the local fair grounds, the natural response was to go and partake of the culture and entertainment. For literally millions of people in the recently settled West, the Chautauqua was the only form of entertainment and cultural exposure that existed at the time. By the 1920s there were at least eight different traveling tent Chautauquas, or circuit Chautauquas, touring through the United States and Canada each summer.

These Chautauquas were business enterprises. The Chautauquas sold stock to investors. Circuit superintendents monitored positive and negative feedback from the audiences and from local organizers. If negotiating contracts with local organizers became difficult or strained, the circuit superintendents were reluctant to return to that town the following year. If ticket sales at another location failed to meet expectations, that circuit would look for greener pastures in the future. The circuit managers were constantly attentive to the sales receipts, debts, bills and the business risks involved in launching and sustaining a Chautauqua circuit.

In spite of the unemotional business aspect of the Chautauqua movement, the Chautauquas, while they lasted, were enormously popular. Teddy Roosevelt described the Chautauqua movement as “The most American thing in America.” Thomas Edison, son - in - law to Chautauqua founder Lewis Miller, said that the Chautauqua system was “an idea which has been and will continue to be of immense educational value to all the people.” Woodrow Wilson declared that the Chautauqua system was “an integral part of the national defense.” Calvin Coolidge said that “Chautauqua [served] the cause of culture, education and liberalism.”

This rural cultural movement was at its height in 1924. That year, various circuit Chautauquas appeared at approximately 12,000 towns and entertained and educated approximately 40 million people.

Margaret (Barnum) Franklin, sometimes known as Miriam, who contributed these papers to the Kansas State Historical Society, served one summer as a junior supervisor with the Redpath - Vawter Circuit, and served for four more years as an advance representative for the Associated Chautauquas of America. At another point in the Chautauqua history she entertained along with other young women as a part of two female quartets, one known as Uncle Sam’s Nieces, the other was the Marine Maids. It was while working for the Chautauquas that she met and later married the president of the Associated Chautauquas of America, Charles Benjamin Franklin.

In spite of its overwhelming popularity, the Chautauqua’s days were, in fact, numbered. By 1930, the Chautauqua movement was definitely on the decline, and by 1933, the once strong Chautauqua circuits had closed being a victim of advances in technology that offered alternative forms of entertainment. At the time the Chautauquas circuits first got started, neither cars, nor movies even existed. By 1930, however, cars were becoming common enough that even people in rural areas had them and could drive to town to see sound movies. The West was increasing in population and becoming more urbanized. In 1930 towns with libraries, theaters and dance halls existed in places where there were no towns thirty years earlier. And if the western ruralite or city dweller cared little for libraries, driving to town, watching movies, or going to dance halls, he could instead, listen to a radio, something else that did not exist when the Chautauquas first went on the circuit.

Though the circuit Chautauquas had gone defunct in the early 1930s, occasionally, a local group might organize a “Chautauqua” of local talent on a one - time basis. Yet these “Chautauquas” were but a shadow of the former movement that brought cultural light to so many.

Since the end of the Chautauqua circuits in the 1930s, the cultural influence that the movement brought to America is not entirely forgotten. This collection abounds with post - Chautauqua era newspaper and magazine articles about the movement. In 1974, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp, on the centennial of Chautauqua’s founding in New York, to honor the Chautauqua movement as being an important part of rural life in the United States. Even today, people will periodically organize a Chautauqua, featuring musical concerts, dance performances, one - act plays, comedies and featured speakers.

For more historical information on the original Chautauqua at Lake Chautauqua, New York, see the folders Articles, Brochures and Programs, and Centennial in series 2. For more historical information on the the rural circuit Chautauquas of the Midwest, see the folders Administration and Handbooks in series 3 and Articles, Reminiscent, in series 4. For more information on “revival” Chautauquas, taking place since the 1930s, see the folder Revival Programs in series 4.

Scope and Content Notes

This manuscript collection comprises the papers of Margaret B. Franklin, a longtime resident of Topeka, Kansas. Mrs. Franklin and her husband Charles Benjamin Franklin were both deeply involved in the Chautauqua movement, ubiquitous during the Midwestern summers of the early part of the twentieth century. C. Ben Franklin started the Cadmean Chautauqua and Lyceum Association and later became the president of the Associated Chautauqua of America. Margaret Barnum entertained in a couple of women’s quartets and worked as a junior supervisor and an advance representative.

This collection is so centered around the Franklin’s Chautauqua activities that there is hardly any material in this collection that does not pertain to the Chautauqua movement. In this collection there are items such as program guides, correspondence, financial and administrative records, handbooks, rules and regulations for running these cultural tent shows, playbills, souvenirs, promotional posters and advertisements.

As the Chautauqua of the American Midwest developed out of the Chautauqua Institute of western New York State, there are also a significant amount of Chautauqua Institute records and papers in this collection as well. A series entitled Origins: Chautauqua, New York precedes the main series in this collection, entitled The Rural Cultural Movement.

Even though these unique cultural caravans were immensely popular during the first third of the twentieth century, they did eventually phase out of existence. Nevertheless, the Chautauquas were such an integral part of Americana that “revival” Chautauquas periodically appear at county fairgrounds to recreate this once important part of American life. An epilogue subseries concerning Chautauqua revivals concludes this collection.

In addition to the Chautauqua records found in this collection, there are a number of Chautauqua Home Reading books that originally came with this accession and that have been transferred to the Kansas State Historical Society’s library collection.

Collection Summary

Processed by: Robert A. McInnes

Date of processing: 1996

Volume: 5 ft. (11 five inch boxes plus oversize items).

Provenance: Margaret Lavona (Barnum) Franklin donated this collection of papers to the Kansas State Historical Society in 1995.

Citation: Footnotes and citations referring to this collection should include the appropriate series and subseries and the box and folder numbers and Margaret B. Franklin Papers, 1883 – 1992, ms. collection 757, Library and Archives Division, Kansas State Historical Society.

Copyright Notice :
This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

The user is cautioned that the publication of the contents of this microfilm may be construed as constituting a violation of literary property rights. These rights are derived from the principle of common law, affirmed in the 1976 copyright act, that the writer of an unpublished letter or other manuscript has the sole right to publish the contents thereof for the duration of the copyright. Unless he or she affirmatively parts with that right, the right descends to his or her legal heirs regardless of the ownership of the physical manuscript itself. It is the responsibility of the author or his or her publisher to secure permission of the owner of literary property rights in unpublished writing.

Outline

Container List

Inventory of Oversize Materials

(All oversize items are stored in M-3-3-3 Q unless otherwise noted)