For over 130 years the Amphitheater has been the centerpiece of Chautauqua Institution.
The existing Amphitheater as it appeared about 1915
From its humble beginnings as a simple speaker platform, the Amphitheater has evolved and expanded as Chautauqua Institution grew.
The original 1874 speaker’s platform (ciweb.org).
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An early gathering at the original Chautauqua Auditorium under the trees
When Chautauqua’s leaders built the current Amphitheater in 1893, they designed it to last 100 years. It certainly has done just that, but not without some trouble along the way.
In just the last twenty years alone, the Amphitheater has undergone major renovations to update the electrical capacity for lighting and sound, repairs to the foundation and roof, and the addition of accessible ramps for the disabled, all requirement which could not be envisioned when the original structure was built.
You can click on the illustration below to see a timeline of the Amphitheater’s history and changes over time:
Every repair and update was a challenge. Chautauqua Institution’s leadership has long tried to balance the needs of a modern age with a desire to preserve the much-loved character of the structure. But, section by section, the Amphitheater has been torn down and rebuilt again and again over the years.
Filled to capacity; a view of the stage from the back of the Amphitheater, 1913.
Last year, Chautauqua Institution’s governing board at last cried “uncle” and determined that no amount of updates and renovations could prepare the existing Amphitheater for the needs of current and future generations of Chautauquans.
So in last December Chautauqua Institution announced a major remodel of the Amphitheater.
An artist’s rendering of how the new Amphitheater will look, viewing the stage from the rear of the structure. (www.ciweb.org)
Construction has already begun on the grounds surrounding the Amphitheater. This fall, after the 2016 season has closed, the existing Amphitheater will be thoroughly remodeled and updated. Essentially, a brand new structure will be built. If all goes according to plans, the new Amphitheater will be completed in time for the 2017 summer season.
An artist’s rendering of the view from the stage toward the rear of the structure. (www.ciweb.org)
You can see all the artist’s renderings of the new Amphitheater design by clicking here.
If you’ve ever thought about visiting Chautauqua Institution to see the Amphitheater and the incredible Massey Memorial Organ as Isabella Alden once saw them, 2016 will be the last year you will be able to do so.
Some people are saddened by the change. It’s the end of an era, but the beginning of a beautiful future for Chautauqua Institution’s Amphitheater.
If you’re a female born before 1970, there’s a good chance you played with paper dolls when you were young.
Paper dolls were a popular toy because they were inexpensive to produce and they were often free to consumers. To play paper dolls, a little girl only needed a pair of scissors and a modicum of adult supervision during the cutting phase.
In the early 1900s newspapers printed paper dolls with educational themes. In 1909, for example, major newspapers printed the syndicated Dorothy Dot paper dolls that featured Dorothy traveling the world, meeting new friends and learning about foreign lands.
Dorothy Dot paper doll in a 1909 edition of the Washington DC newspaper Evening Star
On her travels, the fictional Dorothy Dot visited “Antoinette,” a French paper doll (published in the Los Angeles Herald newspaper in 1909).
Companies used paper dolls in advertisements for many different products, from ladies’ corsets to sewing threads.
Paper doll printed by Bortree Corsets
The Willimantic Thread Company published this paper doll
A paper doll compliments of Brook’s Spool Cotton Thread.
Sunshine Biscuits (still in business today as the makers of Hydrox cookies and Cheez-It crackers) often included free paper dolls in their product packaging.
Paper doll from Sunshine Biscuits
Other times, they used paper dolls to increase sales. For example, they included this paper doll kimono in one of their magazine advertisements, but the doll could only be found in packages of Sunshine cookies.
But it was American magazines that really popularized girls’ paper dolls. The Ladies’ Home Journal and Good Housekeeping magazines led the way, publishing high-quality paper dolls with wardrobes in color. This two-page spread from a 1919 edition of Good Housekeeping was typical for the magazine:
By the time paper dolls really hit their zenith of popularity in the 1950s, they were even on cereal boxes, like this Kellogg’s cereal:
Isabella Alden didn’t mention specific paper dolls in her books, but given their popularity, there were probably many girls of Isabella’s acquaintance who played with paper dolls.
And there are many adults who love them, too! Visit Etsy and you’ll find many vendors who create new paper dolls or reproduce vintage paper dolls from different eras.
And we found a great site that explains the history of paper dolls and features an interesting blog with many examples of dolls from different decades. Just click here to visit.
How about you? Did you ever play with paper dolls? Which was your favorite?
Isabella often wrote stories that featured children trying to earn money to help support themselves or their families.
“The Pinch of Poverty” by Thomas Benjamin Kennington, 1891.
Long before today’s labor laws and social service programs existed, children worked long hours in factories or in the homes of wealthy people, usually for pitiful wages.
“Homeless” by Thomas Benjamin Kennington, 1890.
Eleanor H. Porter, the famous creator of the Pollyanna books, wrote about the plight of one such child in her novel Cross Currents.
And famed artist Thomas Benjamin Kennington painted a series of portraits of homeless and destitute children in an effort to raise awareness of the problem.
“Orphans” by Thomas Benjamin Kennington, 1885.
Isabella’s novels The Man of the House, Miss Dee Dunmore Bryant and Twenty Minutes Late all dealt with the issue of children’s working conditions in cities across America; but Isabella always made certain her books had a happy ending. She imbued her young characters with high ideals and strong work ethics that often brought them to the notice of a wealthy benefactor who changed their lives.
“Daily Bread” by Thomas Benjamin Kennington, 1883.
That was the case in Isabella’s short story, “Which Way?” about a twelve-year-old boy trying to make enough money to pay the rent on his family’s home. It first appeared in The Pansy magazine in 1889 and you can read it here:
Which Way?
He was a curly-headed, pleasant-faced boy, of about twelve; his clothes were growing short at the ankles and wrists, and were a good deal patched, yet there was a neat trim look about them that one liked to see.
He stood at the corner where two roads met, balancing in his mind the important question which way to go. Both roads led homeward, by an almost equally direct route; one was a trifle sandy part of the way, the other was up hill.
“Hill or sand?” he said to himself, with a smile. “It makes a lot of difference in a fellow’s lifetime which! What if it did, though? What if it should make a difference all the rest of my life? He told about smaller things than that bringing great things out of them. If I had a penny I might toss it up, only I don’t believe he thinks that’s the way to decide things.
“He” meant a stranger whose satchel the boy had carried that afternoon, and who, as they walked along, had spoken a half-dozen cheery words to him about the importance of little things; helping the boy to think more gravely, perhaps, than he ever had before. Then the stranger had gone his way on the three o’clock train, and Jamie never expected to see him again; but he could not help thinking a little about the words. To tell the truth, but for these words to think about he would have been very downhearted.
It was toward the close of a long summer day, in which he had been tramping from one end of the town to the other in search of work, and had failed. It was the old story, father dead, mother hard-worked and poor, with two children younger than Jamie to care for. There was great need that he should find work to do. The dreadful rent, which seemed to eat up every penny, was nearly due again, and little Eddie had been sick for a week, hindering his mother from going out to her regular day’s work, so that times were harder than ever before.
On Monday morning Jamie had started out with a brave heart, sure that for a strong and willing boy of twelve, there must be plenty of work to do; but now it was Thursday evening, and though he had tramped faithfully from morning till night, no steady work could be found, only a few odd jobs; which, though his mother told him would help a great I deal, seemed very small compared with what he had meant to do. It seemed hard to have to go home and say that he had failed again. This was why he loitered by the way, and tried to fill his mind with other things.
“I’ll go this way,” he said at last, dashing down the less familiar street. “Who knows what may happen?”
What “happened” was that the hostler at the great stone house on the corner, who had been kind to Jamie, called to him as he passed to ask if he would take a note to his cousin Mary Ann who lived at Mr. Stewart’s on the next corner.
Of course Jamie was glad to accommodate him and made all speed to the great house of whose gardens he had often wished he could get a closer view. A game of tennis was in progress here. Jamie stood a moment watching the graceful movements of the players; wondering, meantime, which way to turn to find Mary Ann. Presently the lady who seemed to be the chief one of the group noticed him, and he made known his errand.
“Mary Ann? Oh, yes, she is in the laundry, I think; or no, she is probably upstairs by this time. Wait a moment, my boy, and I will see if I can find her,” and she took her turn in the game.
“Are you in haste?” she asked presently, turning to him with the pleasantest smile Jamie thought he had ever seen in his life.
“Oh, no, ma’am,” he said, returning the smile, “I’m never in a hurry.” His face sobered instantly as the fact that he had no work to make him feel in haste, came back to him unpleasantly. It appeared that the game was very near its close; a few more turns, and with much laughter and many pleasant words the players said good-night, leaving the young lady and Jamie alone. He was glad that her side had beaten.
Original illustration by Childe Hassam for the story “Which Way?”
She turned toward him, smiling. “So you are never in a hurry; that must be a rather pleasant state of things.”
“I don’t know, ma’am,” said Jamie again. “I guess I’d like to have a chance to be in a hurry.”
“Would!” with lifted eyebrows and an amused, questioning look. “That is strange! I’m in a hurry a great deal of the time, and I don’t enjoy it always. There is Mary Ann at this moment.” She signaled the red-faced Irish girl to approach, and Jamie delivered his note, then turned to go, having made a respectful bow to the lady. But apparently she was not through with him.
“Why do you go away so soon, if you are never in a hurry?” she said pleasantly.
“Why, I’ve done my errand,” said Jamie, “and I supposed the next thing was to go.”
“Why shouldn’t the ‘next thing’ be to come and look at my roses? Bright red and yellow ones. You like them, don’t you? In the meantime you can tell me how you manage it so as not to be in a hurry.”
Jamie followed her with great satisfaction, but finding she waited for his answer, said:
“Why, you see, ma’am, the way of it is, I’ve got nothing to hurry about, and I wish I had. I’ve been hunting for work for three days as steadily as I could, and haven’t found any yet, and am not likely to. That was what I meant.”
“Oh! I understand in part, but I should think your lessons would give you almost enough to do without a great deal of work.”
“I’m not in school, ma’am,” said Jamie, speaking low. “There are reasons why I can’t go very well; mother needs me to help earn the living, so I’m looking for a chance.”
“I begin to understand quite well. What sort of work do you want?”
“Any sort under the sun that I could do; and I could learn to do anything that other boys do if I had a chance,” he said eagerly.
“Such as weeding in a garden, for instance, and picking strawberries and peas? How long do you think it would take you to learn such work?”
“I was born on a farm, ma’am; mother only moved here this spring. It’s just the kind of work I’ve been looking for, but I can’t find any.”
“That is simply because you didn’t come to the right place. My mother has been looking for you all day. I dare say at this moment she is wishing you would come and pick some strawberries for tea, and I’m sure I do, for if you don’t I’m much afraid I shall have to do it myself. I think we would do well to go at once and talk to her about it.”
Jamie, as he followed her up the steps of the broad piazza, his heart beating fast with hope, told himself that he had never seen a sweeter lady in all his life.
Afterwards, while they were picking the strawberries—for she went with him to “show him how,” she said with a merry smile—he told her how he came to take the road home which led past her door; and then, in answer to her questions, how he was led into that train of thought by the earnest words which the strange young man said to him that morning.
“So you carried my brother Harvey’s satchel, did you?” she said, with a bright look on her face. “Very well; one of the ‘little things’ he told about has happened to you. Now you are sure of plenty of work about this house as long as you want it, provided you are a faithful, honest boy, as I seem to know you will be. I think I must have been looking for you; but I’ll tell you what I think, my boy; I don’t believe it is a happen at all. I believe your Father sent you.”
You can click on the cover images to find out more about the books mentioned in this post.
In her novels, Isabella often wrote about the unique challenges of being a step-parent.
In By Way of the Wilderness, Wayne Pierson saw his new step-mother as an interloper and a rival for his father’s attention, causing much heart-ache for himself and his family.
Ruth Erskine, the main character in Ruth Erskine’s Crosses, disliked her step-mother to the point of being ashamed of her; and when Ruth later married a man with two daughters of his own (in Judge Burham’s Daughters), Ruth taught her step-children proper manners, but failed to address their spiritual needs.
Like all Isabella’s novels, By Way of the Wilderness and the Chautauqua Books were allegorical stories, written to convey specific messages and lessons about living the Christian life.
But what many people don’t know is that Isabella was herself a step-mother. When she married Gustavus “Ross” Alden in 1866, Ross had a ten-year-old daughter from his first marriage to Hannah Bogart.
Like Ross Alden’s family, Hannah’s ancestors were among the earliest emigrants to America; her ancestors arrived as far back as 1652 and settled the New Netherlands (now New York) in the time of Peter Stuyvesant.
Ross and Hannah met in New York and married when they were both in their early twenties. Nine months later, little Anna Maria Alden was born. Tragically, Hannah died just two months later.
Death notice of Hannah Bogart Alden. From the New York Daily Tribune, November 19, 1856.
Very few records exist to tell us how Ross coped with the daunting responsibility of raising an infant daughter after the death of his wife. We do know he stayed in New York, close to where Hannah’s family lived, and probably had much help from them. Census records show that by the time little Anna was four years old, she was living with her maternal grandparents, without Ross.
St. Andrews Church, Richmond. New York. Here Hannah Bogart Alden was buried, and Ross and Anna were baptized.
Three years after Hannah’s death, Ross made a decision that would influence the rest of his life. He “united with the Reformed Church in Richmond, Long Island”—the same church, which, for generations, had been the church of Hannah’s family—and he began laying the foundation for becoming a minister.
Membership records from the Dutch Reformed Church of New York.
Ross was baptized, and a few months later his daughter Anna was baptized in the same church.
Baptism records from St. Andrews Church, Richmond, Staten Island, New York.
While Anna remained with her grandparents, Ross moved 300 miles away to begin studies at Auburn Theological Seminary. There he met Isabella Macdonald, who was visiting her sister Marcia and brother-in-law, Charles Livingston, who was also a theology student.
An 1863 Union Army record showing Ross Alden’s registration for the draft. He lists his occupation as “student.”
Ross and Isabella fell in love and married in 1866, the same year Ross graduated. The evening of their wedding day they boarded a train and left for Ross’s first church pastorate.
None of the records about that happy and blessed day mention whether Ross’s ten-year-old daughter Anna was at the wedding. Isabella’s good friend Theodosia Toll Foster was there, though, and that may have been the occasion when Theodosia and Anna met. Theodosia had younger sisters, the youngest of whom was just about Anna’s age.
An undated photo of Theodosia Toll Foster
Though we can’t be certain when exactly Theodosia and Anna met, but we do know that very soon after Ross and Isabella’s marriage, Anna went to live with Theodosia at the Toll homestead in Verona, New York.
While Ross and Isabella led an almost itinerant life, moving from one church to another every two or three years, Anna enjoyed a very stable home life with Theodosia and her sisters. They called Anna their “truly sister” and she quickly became a much-loved and integral member of the family.
When Anna was 16, she lived with Ross and Isabella in Cooperstown, New York, where they were in charge of yet another congregation. And when Ross and Isabella moved two years later to New Hartford, New York, Anna went with them … as did the entire Toll family. Theodosia, her elderly father and her younger sisters all moved to New Hartford. There Theodosia put her talents for teaching to good use. She and her sisters set up a boarding and day school, and their journals reveal that Anna helped run the enterprise.
By then, Ross and Isabella had a son (two-year-old Raymond), and Isabella’s mother and sister Julia were also living with them in New Hartford. It must have been wonderful to have had their large, extended family so close together again!
The 1875 Federal Census showing the members of the Alden household in New Hartford, New York.
But their reunion didn’t last long. Within months, Ross received a call to minister at a church in Indiana. Once again he and Isabella left New York for a new city. This time, 20 year old Anna stayed behind with Theodosia.
There is only one other instance recorded of Anna living with Ross and Isabella. When the 1880 Federal Census was taken, Anna was 24 years old and the Census shows her living with Ross and Isabella in Cumminsville, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati), where Ross had a church. That same year, Alida, the youngest of Theodosia’s sisters, wrote in her journal that she was excited over an upcoming trip to visit Anna in her Ohio home.
Sometime after that visit in Cumminsville, Anna once again returned to New York to live with the Tolls. And when the Toll sisters closed their school in New Hartford and returned to their home town of Verona, New York, Anna went with them; and there she remained for the rest of her life.
In Verona Anna was a long-time member of the Presbyterian Church, and she was deeply involved in church matters. Friends described her as “a consistent Christian woman” who “won the sincere love and respect of all who knew her.
Anna was just 57 years old when she passed away from complications of pneumonia. Theodosia’s sister Eunice marked the sad day in her journal with the notation, “Our Anna died.”
Obituary of Anna Alden. From the Rome Daily Sentinel, December 21, 1914.
Unfortunately for us, none of Isabella’s correspondence with Theodosia has ever been found, so we cannot know the initial reason Anna first went to live with the Toll family; but we do know, from records that do exist of her life, that no matter where Anna lived, she was very much loved by her family and community.
Isabella Alden has a new Pinterest board for you to view: Vintage Advertising is a collection of trade cards, magazine ads, and newspaper advertisements for products that were available to consumers during the years Isabella wrote and published her books.
Many of the advertising images date from the 1890s to the 1920s. Some feature simple illustrations (like the 1916 Cuticura Soap magazine ad above), while others are colorful, detailed works of art.
Altogether, they provide a glimpse into what life was like for Isabella Alden and the characters she brought to life in her books.
This early Kodak magazine ad from 1916 was one of the first of its kind to be printed in color.
The trade card below for Dr. Batty’s Asthma Cigarettes harkens back to a time when people believed smoking cigarettes could cure asthma. Interestingly, the trade card suggests children under the age of 6 should not smoke the cigarettes (suggesting that children as young as age 7 could!).
Please stop by Isabella’s new Pinterest page. New images are added frequently so be sure to follow her board or visit often.
Isabella Alden’s 1899 novel, A Modern Sacrifice, is about Kissie Gordon, the daughter of a minister, who had been raised to live according to the Bible’s teachings. But when Kissie’s father dies, she and her mother move to the city, where Kissie is quickly sucked into a whirl of social pleasures she’s never known before. Soon her world revolves around dancing and parties and playing cards.
Isabella wrote the story at a time when most Christian denominations denounced or forbad dancing of any kind. Ministers preached against dancing and wrote tracts about the hidden evils of dance.
Isabella referred to those tracts in A Modern Sacrifice. In the story, Kissie tries to convince her friends to give up dancing by loaning them a book that warns against the promiscuous influence dance can have on young people.
The idea that dancing was a gateway to promiscuity was not new. In his 1893 book Modern Dancing; in The Light of Scripture and Facts, the Reverend William W. Gardner warned that dancing “nourished passion and sensual desires” and “leads to the seduction and ruin of the innocent.”
That was pretty strong language for Victorian times; and in A Modern Sacrifice, the mothers of Kissie’s friends were offended that Kissie—a well-brought up young woman—would own a book that contained such vulgar terms.
Ministers who preached against dancing found an ally in the New York City Chief of Police, who reported that three fourths of the “abandoned girls of that city were ruined by dancing.” His simple statement was held up by clergymen as proof of a link between dancing and prostitution.
The waltz earned the most condemnation from churches. “It excites great physical intimacy among young men and young women, which should only exist between those whom wedlock has united,” declared Rev. A. B. Riker of the Fourth Street Methodist Church in his series of discourses condemning popular social pastimes.
Even the humble square dance was prohibited:
“The square dances create a taste for the round dances and, usually, if not invariably, lead to them. The step is so easily taken from apparently innocent dancing to that which is free, indecent, amorous and licentious, that a tender conscience will find it safest to reject all.”
Dr. Archibald Alexander
Professor, Princeton Theological Seminary
In A Modern Sacrifice Kissie Gordon finally comes to realize how far she has strayed from her upbringing; and once Kissie saves herself from society’s extravagances, she vows to try to save her friends, too, by organizing her own social event that soon has all of society talking.
You can read A Modern Sacrifice; the Story of Kissie Gordon’s Experiment for free. Click on the book cover to begin reading.
Would you like to read a popular 1893 tract on the perils of dance? Click here to read Modern Dancing; in the Light of Scripture and Facts by Rev. W. W. Gardner, D.D.
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Isabella Alden 