The digital collection Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century presents more than 8,700 publicity brochures drawn from the Records of the Redpath Lyceum Bureau. Redpath was the largest booking agency for circuit Chautauqua, an enterprise that between 1904 and 1932 brought together under the canvas of large tents thousands of performers and lecturers and millions of small town residents across the United States. Featured in this digital collection are "talent circulars" promoting lecturers and performances from orators, teachers, preachers, statesmen and politicians, actors, singers and opera stars, glee clubs and concert companies, magicians, whistlers, and many others.
The source materials for this collection are housed at the Special Collections Department at The University of Iowa Libraries. (external link) Please contact the Department (external link) with any questions or information about the original materials or with requests for reproductions.
The digitization and presentation of these materials by The University of Iowa Libraries was supported by an award from the Library of Congress/Ameritech National Digital Library Competition. The digital reproductions of the materials are also mounted at the awardee institution.