For Immediate Release (00-26)
Date: June 9, 2000
Contact: Steve Simon, 240-567-7952 (pager: 301-930-2880)

Rockville, MD -- Four legendary historical figures—Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton, and William Lloyd Garrison—will lead participants back in time to Maryland’s turbulent Civil War era, at the Montgomery College chautauqua, scheduled for July 11-14. Most events will be held under a tent at the College’s Germantown Campus.

Each evening will feature an actor/humanities scholar speaking to the audience in the dress and character of one of these four renowned Civil War figures. Musical entertainers will also be on hand to warm up the audience with selections from the period. All events are free and open to the public.

Taking its name from a lake in New York, the chautauqua began in 1874 as a training course for Sunday school teachers. By 1904, the chautauqua took to the road as part of the Lyceum movement, bringing lectures and entertainers to towns across America. By the end of the ‘20s, however, chautauquas were a thing of the past, due to the rise of the radio and moving picture. In Maryland, chautauquas were held in 1891 at Glen Echo Park in Montgomery County, and at the turn of the century at Mountain Lake Park in Garrett County.

Reborn as a humanities program in the 1970s, today’s chautauquas feature scholars who take on personas of celebrated historical figures, educating and entertaining audiences as they engage them in dialogue about the past.

The Montgomery College chautauqua is sponsored in association with the Maryland Humanities Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Maryland Division of Historical and Cultural Programs, Columbia Gas of Maryland, and the Lockheed Martin Corporation.

The Chautauqua's schedule of events is as follows:

Tuesday, July 11
7 p.m.     Original songs and classical guitar by Christina Muir An Evening with Harriet Tubman, by Gwendolyn Briley-Strand
Under the tent at Montgomery College, Germantown Campus,
20200 Observation Drive, Germantown

Wednesday, July 12
2 p.m.  William Lloyd Garrison and the Question of Civil Disobedience, by Doug A. Mishler
Germantown Community Library, Route 118 at Middlebrook Road, Germantown

7 p.m. Modern folk music written and performed by Jerry Bresee 
An Evening with William Lloyd Garrison, by Doug A. Mishler
Under the tent at Montgomery College, Germantown Campus
 
Thursday, July 13
7 p.m. Original songs and guitar by Mary Sue Twohy
An Evening with Abraham Lincoln, by Richard Johnson
Under the tent at Montgomery College, Germantown Campus

Friday, July 14
2 p.m. In Defense of Liberty: African-Americans and the Civil War (for adults and high school students), by Sharon Harley
Asbury Methodist Village, Community Center Building, 210 Russell Avenue, Gaithersburg

7 p.m. Civil War era guitar, banjo, and fiddle music, by Liberty Dawne and George Welling
An Evening with Clara Barton, by Mary Ann Jung
Under the tent at Montgomery College, Germantown Campus

All sites are handicapped accessible. To request sign language interpretation, call the Maryland Humanities Council at 410-771-0652 by June 21.  For more information on the Montgomery College Chautauqua, call 240-567-7746.