The Speaker Series follows a long and important history in the United States of public forums provided to present, exchange and debate issues. The speaking circuit began in town halls across America where people came together to discuss programs and decisions that the town needed for the welfare of the community.

As an outgrowth came the lyceum movement, a voluntary organization begun in 1826 that sponsored lectures and debates on topics of current interest, expanding discussions from town hall planning issues to broader issues of politics, culture, and self betterment. By 1834, there were 3,000 lyceums across the Northeast and Midwest that attracted speakers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, Daniel Webster, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Susan B. Anthony.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, the movement began to decline. It eventually blended into the Chautauqua Movement, which began in 1874 as a summer training assembly for Sunday school teachers in Chautauqua Lake, New York. The movement broadened in scope to include general education and popular entertainment, and spread beyond the region with circuit chautauquas. Outstanding speakers were brought in for summer lectures and a sharing of ideas to stimulate the mind.

The Chautauqua Institution in New York remains today a world renowned center that has become synonymous with intellectual pursuit and is credited with the growth of community colleges and continuing education programs at universities and colleges across the country.

These 19th-century movements contributed to the broadening of school curricula throughout the country and the development of cultural institutions such as museums and libraries, where we have access to the artistic and intellectual achievements from around the globe.

Thanks to modern technology there is now instant information, instant thought, instant direction, and instant debate. Such instant exchanges often occur via computer and can therefore seem sterile and lacking in humanity. This has stimulated renewed interest in the chautauqua, where speakers explore the realm of ideas in a community forum.