Teachers' Lyceums in Early Nineteenth-Century America (Article 13) (Essay‪)‬

Most historians interested in the cultural history of nineteenth-century America are familiar with the lyceum movement, first popularized by Massachusetts' Josiah Holbrook. "Without a doubt, every cultural and social historian of nineteenth-century America has mentioned the lyceum system somewhere in his writing", historian Carl Bode noted, "but the references have all too often been confined to a few commonplaces" (Bode 1952, 92). According to Bode, these commonplaces tell the general story of the movement without further elaboration. For example, these statements often describe lyceums as self-contained societies designed for the mutual instruction of their members. At lyceum meetings, members convened together on a regular basis to hear a series of speeches or readings, sometimes followed by discussion or debates. While lyceums were extremely popular during the 1820s and 1830s, they disappeared with the advent of the Civil War--though later providing inspiration for Chautauquan lectures and reading circles at the close of the century.