Chautauquas, popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were a conglomeration of educational lectures, music, sermons, comedy and sometimes political oratory. The chautauqua movement originated in 1874 at Lake Chautauqua, N.Y., an outgrowth of a kind of long-running camp meeting setting that evolved into lectures and music. Its founders were Methodist ministers Lewis Miller and John Heyl Vincent, who wanted to stimulate a thirst for knowledge.