Florida Chautauqua Assembly comes to DeFuniak Springs Jan. 22 – 26

January 12, 2015

The 2015 Florida Chautauqua Assembly will be held in DeFuniak Springs Jan. 22 – 26, 2015. The 4-day educational programs theme this year is “A Journey into the World of Transportation:  From the River to the Rocket.”  The event is comprised of many educational sessions, exhibits and a featured keynote presentation by Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise.

Apollo 13 Astronaut Fred Haise is Chatauqua Assembly's keynote speaker.
Apollo 13 Astronaut Fred Haise is Chatauqua Assembly’s keynote speaker.

All sessions and events will relate to the history of transportation. Passports (money saving book of tickets) are $150 each and include lunches, dinners and all sessions/events.  For those who wish to take a day off from traditional sessions, an excursion to the National Navy Aviation Museum in Pensacola is planned.

Below is a tentative schedule of sessions Click here to register. Call  (850) 892-7613 or email the president at cmitchell002@panhandle.rr.com for more information.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2015
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.:  Registration/check in at Lakeside Building, 1290 Circle Drive, DeFuniak Springs, FL 32435.
11:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.:  TOURS OF THE ORIGINAL FLORIDA CHAUTAUQUA CAMPUS – Begin with a tour of our Historic District as it relates to the original Florida Chautauqua Assembly.  Take a ride with us and learn about how the Assembly began in the 1880s and about the famous people who spoke here, like Vice President Thomas Marshall.  You’ll be awed by the Victorian homes built during the original assembly, and you’ll understand what the original campus looked like and how our community has been so influenced by this historic event.  Lakeside Building, 1290 Circle Drive.  (Tickets $5).
5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.:  WELCOME PARTY!  – Join our faculty, board of directors, volunteers and other Chautauqua guests at the annual Welcome Party.  This year’s gathering will be at the Community Center where we will visit the many displays relating to this year’s assembly.  Then, sit down and enjoy the movie “Apollo 13!”  Soft drinks and heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served to compliment your evening of networking and fellowship.  Community Center.  (Tickets $15)

Free exhibits along the Lakeyard include Muscogee Indian Camp, Forestry exhibit, Civil War Camp, and Plein Air Paint-Out and Art Sale.
Free exhibits along the Lakeyard include Muscogee Indian Camp, Forestry exhibit, Civil War Camp, and Plein Air Paint-Out and Art Sale.

FRIDAY, January 23, 2015
7:00 a.m. – 7:45 a.m.:  BREAKFAST SESSION: TBA  – Best Western Crossroads Inn
8:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.:  FREE EXHIBITS
•    Civil War Camp – Lake Yard
•    Florida Frontiersmen Settlement Camp – Lake Yard
•    Tin Can Campers Antique RV and Camper Show – Lake Yard
•    Muscogee Indian Camp – Lake Yard
•    Florida Forest Service – Lake Yard
•    Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge – Lake Yard
•    Studebaker Corral – Lake Yard
•    Chautauqua Cruisers Antique Car Show – Methodist Church Parking Lot
•    Florida Chautauqua History Exhibit – Lakeside Building, 1290 Circle Drive
•    Plein Air Paint-Out & Art Sale – Lake Yard
•    Student Museum Exhibit on the History of Travel – Chautauqua Hall of Brotherhood, 2nd Floor
•    Walton County Heritage Museum (Train Depot) – Circle Drive
•    Historic Walton-DeFuniak Springs Library – Circle Drive
•    Porcelain Art Show – Community Center
8:30 a.m. FEATURED KEYNOTE SPEAKER OPENING CEREMONY
•    Actress Joanna Maddox as Pilot Bessie Coleman
•    Video introduction of Featured Keynote Speaker
9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.:   FEATURED KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
Apollo 13 Astronaut Fred Haise, Walton High School Auditorium. (Tickets $15)
10:45 a.m. – Noon:  BREAKOUT SESSIONS
•    “High Flight” – The World’s Most Well-Known and Beloved Words On Flight – In reaching out to comfort a Nation numbed by the loss of the Challenger space shuttle and her crew, President Ronald Reagan borrowed from the poem “High Flight” to describe the astronauts in their last moments as having “slipped the surly bonds of Earth” and “touched the face of God.”  In doing so, he brought the attention of the public at large to words that had long been well known to almost every English-speaking pilot.  This presentation will examine the lesser known elements of the poem:  the life of the nineteen-year old pilot who composed “High Flight,” inspiration for its words, and the poem’s legacy in film, television, music, and — through President Reagan’s speech — American history.  – Todi Carnes (Tickets $8).
•    Studebaker’s National Treasures -The Presidential Carriage Collection – What do Presidents Lincoln, Grant, Harrison and McKinley have in common?  Their carriages are all part of the Studebaker National Museum’s Presidential Carriage Collection in South Bend Indiana!  Learn the history behind these national treasures and how they came to call South Bend home.  Andrew Beckman, Archivist of the National Studebaker Museum. (Tickets $8)
•    How Rivers Made North America and Doomed Latin America – Join Gregory Garland of the U.S. State Department in taking a look at why the English, Dutch, and French settled on major rivers, and the Spanish and Portuguese avoided them (i.e., St. Augustine/Pensacola vs. Charleston vs. Mobile vs. San Antonio).    Gregory Garland (Tickets $8)
•    Traveling to Give Kids The World Village – Give Kids The World Village is a 70-acres, nonprofit “storybook” resort located near Central Florida’s most beloved attractions, where children with life-threatening illnesses and their families are treated to weeklong, cost-free fantasy vacations.  Learn about the power of happy therapy when a child stays at this magical place, and learn how your next trip to Central Florida may be impacted in ways you never thought possible.  – Britt Paulson, Ph.D.
•    The Eisenhower Interstate System – You may have seen those blue signs on the side of the Interstate that reads “Eisenhower Interstate System,” but what do they mean?  Find out how the road you travel on has an impact on our national security and what connection our Interstates have to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.  David Hawk, Florida Division/Federal Highway Administration  (Tickets $8)
•    The Tuskegee Airmen:  Dr. Daniel Haulman will share where and how the first black pilots in American military history trained to fly, and the stages of their flight training. Learn what the Tuskegee Airmen did in combat, with reference to the units in which they served, the types of aircraft they flew, the honors they earned, and the targets to which they flew. The presentation will include key statistics on the first black military pilots, and reference to the “Freeman Field Mutiny,” a precursor of the Civil Rights Movement. Daniel Haulman, Ph.D. –  (Tickets $8)
Noon – 1:15 p.m.:  LUNCH in the Lake Yard!.  (Tickets $8)
1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.:  SPECIAL EVENT
•    Tree Planting Ceremony – Join leaders of the Florida Chautauqua Association, the Florida Forest Service and the City of DeFuniak Springs in honoring Apollo 13 Astronaut Fred Haise for the contributions he made for American space exploration.  Lake Yard.  (Free)
1:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.:  BREAKOUT SESSIONS
•    The Hudson River School:  Recorders of Rivers, Roads, and Rails – All aboard the Hudson River Special for a whirlwind tour, viewed from the observation car of America’s preeminent landscape artists! The Hudson River painters, led by Thomas Cole, sailed up the Hudson River, traversed the Great Plains in covered wagons, and meandered through the White Mountains of New Hampshire by rail, capturing the luminescence of sunsets, the majesty of Yellowstone, and the power of Niagara Falls. Learn how and why they depicted the pristine beauty of the unsettled West. Witness the breathtaking panoramas of Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Asher Brown Durand, John Frederick Kensett, Thomas Moran, and others, men who carved a picturesque niche out of the American wilderness.  Janet Faubel (Tickets $8)
•    Travel Challenges of Ebola – Gregory Garland of the U.S. State Department will focus on his own on-the-spot experience in Guinea-Bissau, which has struggled with its own travel policies. There he has set up a team of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that has helped plan for the prevention of and – if necessary – fight against Ebola. So far, it has worked.  Not one single confirmed case of Ebola has appeared in the country, though many outsiders confuse it with the Ebola-stricken Republic of Guinea next door.  How this has happened and lessons learned along the way will be the topic of this session. Gregory Garland (Tickets $8)
•    Circuit Riders: The Journey on Horseback – Learn the story of the founder of Methodism and his 250,000 mile lifetime journey on horseback to spread the faith in England.  Learn of the Circuit Riders during the late 19th and early 20th century and their efforts to bring religion to the rural areas of the United States, including thirteen weddings and 26 baptisms in one day.  And finally learn how Circuit Riders still bring the sacraments to rural areas that can’t afford to have an ordained preacher.  Join Britt Poulson, whose grandfather was the Circuit Rider who performed the weddings and the baptisms.  Britt Poulson, Ph.D. (Tickets $8)
•    Space Industry in Florida.  Explore the development of the space industry in Brevard County and what the space industry is today.  Thomas Cloud, Esq. (Tickets $8)
•    Performance Tea:  Bessie Coleman –  It’s time for an afternoon tea with American Civil Aviator Bessie Coleman (interpreted by Actress Joanna Maddox). She was the first African American female pilot the first person of African-American descent to hold an international pilot license.    Follow Bessie’s travels from the ground to the skies as she takes you on an adventurous journey in American History. You will feel as if Bessie never left us on that fateful day when her plane fell from the sky. Actress Joanna Maddox, Community Center.  (Tickets $20)
3:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.:  BREAKOUT SESSIONS
•    Personal Aviation Transportation – Personal Aviation is relatively new terminology that describes a segment of aviation that deals with airplanes that are used for non-business recreation and travel.  Typical aircraft that would be considered personal are the high winged Cessnas and low winged Pipers and Beechcrafts that are on the flight lines at most general aviation airports.  However Personal Aviation also encompasses several thousand homebuilt and warbird aircraft licensed as Experimental Aircraft and restored Classic Airplanes licensed as certificated Aircraft.  Fred Carnes will give a presentation aided by photos of the many kinds of Personal Aviation aircraft including Ultra-lights, Light Sport, Homebuilt, and Certificated Aircraft.  Fred will discuss several of the issues associated with personal aviation including Federal Aviation Administration requirements, the shrinking pilot population, medical certification, and high cost of new airplanes, maintenance, and fuel. – Fred Carnes 
(Tickets $8)
•    The Development of Rail in Florida:  Learn about Florida history through the development of the rail system.  Thomas Cloud of Orlando will share stories about three men in his family that were conductors for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, what started as the Plant System, became the ACL, then the Seaboard Coast Line, then CSX.  You’ll also see an interesting assortment of ACL “props,” original conductors hats, lanterns, watches, and rule books. – Thomas Cloud, Esq. (Tickets $8)
•    Parlor Reading at the Octagon House – Descendents of Hon. Wallace Bruce (Tickets $15)
6:00 p.m.:  EVENING DINNER PERFORMANCE

A Bus Ride with Rosa Parks:  You’ll be treated to a special buffet dinner by the Walton High School Culinary Art Classes beginning promptly at 6:00 p.m.  Following desert, sit back and take a bus journey with Rosa Parks (interpreted by Actress Joanna Maddox), “The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement” whose life is celebrated by millions as a symbol of freedom for the world. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat to a white male passenger and was arrested by the Montgomery Police. Her simple act of courage set in motion a chain of events that forever changed American race relations and redirected the course of history. In this one-woman show by actress Joanna Maddox, Rosa’s Park’s life is presented from her childhood days as a field hand.

Saturday, January 24, 2015
7:00 a.m. – 7:45 a.m.:  Breakfast Session:
The Eisenhower Interstate System – You are about to board the motorcoach for an excursion to Pensacola, Florida’s National Naval Aviation Museum.  What you may not know is that the highway (I-10) on which you will travel was developed by the Eisenhower Administration and is part of the Eisenhower Interstate System.  What does this mean?  Find out as you get ready to embark on an incredible journey to a museum which captures so much of our nation’s naval aviation history!  David Hawk, Florida Division/Federal Highway Administration  (Tickets $15 – includes buffet breakfast)
8:00 a.m. – 4:45 p.m.:  Excursion to National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola.
Excursion:  National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola – For those who purchased the “Excursion Passport.”  Celebrate the history and magic of flight through the eyes of the United States Navy!  You’ll embark on your journey on luxury motorcoaches departing from Best Western Crossroads Inn.  Volunteers from the National Naval Air Museum in Pensacola will greet you on arrival and provide private group tours of one of the most amazing museums in America.  See Marine One which presidents have used and breathtaking exhibits relating to space exploration to historic Naval stories.  Then you’ll be treated to an IMAX presentation titled “Magic of Flight” where you’ll experience traveling from the ground to the air watching your experience unfold on a seven-story screen!  A private lunch will be provided at the Museum’s quaint Cubi Bar Cafe which is included in your Passport purchase.  Those with Passports who do NOT with to go on this excursion will be able to enjoy the free exhibits in the Lake Yard and many repeated sessions from the previous day but will be on their own for lunch.  Motor Coach departs from Best Western Crossroads Inn at 8:00 a.m. and returns to DeFuniak Springs at 4:45 p.m.  (Tickets $35)
8:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.:  FREE EXHIBITS
•    Civil War Camp – Lake Yard
•    Florida Frontiersmen Settlement Camp – Lake Yard
•    Tin Can Campers Antique RV and Camper Show – Lake Yard
•    Muscogee Indian Gathering and Encampment – Lake Yard
•    Florida Forest Service – Lake Yard
•    Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge – Lake Yard
•    Chautauqua Cruisers Antique Car Show – Methodist Church Parking Lot
•    Florida Chautauqua History Exhibit – Lakeside Building, 1290 Circle Drive
•    Plein Air Paint-Out & Art Sale – Lake Yard
•    Student Museum on the History of Travel – Chautauqua Hall of Brotherhood, 2nd Floor
•    Walton County Heritage Museum (Train Depot) – Circle Drive
•    Historic Walton-DeFuniak Springs Library – Circle Drive
•    Porcelain Art Show – Community Center
9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. – KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:
•    History of the Studebaker – Archivist Andrew Beckman of the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana will discuss Studebaker’s long history from its early days as the world’s largest horse-drawn vehicle manufacturer to its transition to automobile age.  He will share the impressive history of Studebaker as a styling leader and focus in depth on the design and development of the Studebaker Avanti. Andy will also bring a collection of Theodore Wells Pietsch II’s original framed automotive design drawings for us to look at, and also plans a book signing during the assembly. (Tickets $10)
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.:  SPECIAL EVENT
•    Meet local and regional authors – DeFuniak Springs Library, 3 Circle Drive.  Free
10:45 a.m. – Noon:  BREAKOUT SESSIONS
•    History of the Tin Can Tourists:  Learn about America’s first camping club and its modern revival from today’s Tin Can Tourists leader Forrest Bone.  Mr. Bone will trace the club’s history from 1919 to the present.  Forrest Bone, First United Methodist Church.  (Tickets $8)
•    Through Others’ Eyes: Published Accounts of Antebellum Montgomery, Alabama – Learn from author Jeff Benton about his collection of twenty-seven published accounts of Montgomery, Alabama, which covers the thirty-six years between April 1825 and May 1861. The accounts were written by both famous and obscure travelers — American and European political and military personages, ministers, gentlemen scientists, authors and periodical correspondents, lecturers, entertainers, and even by what were professional travelers. Besides the inevitable comments on the horrible state of accommodations and food, and the trials of travel by stage coach, steamboat, and railway, they commented on slavery, and also on natural history, agriculture, gambling and drinking, Montgomery’s hinterland, and Alabamians. The travelers’ assessments provide a captivating insight into antebellum Montgomery. Through Other’s Eyes is a companion volume to The Very Worst Road: Travellers’ Accounts of Crossing Alabama’s Old Creek Indian Territory, 1820-1848. Jeff Benton (Tickets $8)
•    The Tuskegee Airmen:  Dr. Daniel Haulman will share where and how the first black pilots in American military history trained to fly, and the stages of their flight training. Learn what the Tuskegee Airmen did in combat, with reference to the units in which they served, the types of aircraft they flew, the honors they earned, and the targets to which they flew. The presentation will include key statistics on the first black military pilots, and reference to the “Freeman Field Mutiny,” a precursor of the Civil Rights Movement. Daniel Haulman, Ph.D. –  (Tickets $8)
•    Performance Tea: A Bus Ride with Rosa Parks:  Sit back and take a bus journey with Rosa Parks (interpreted by Actress Joanna Maddox), “The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement” whose life is celebrated by millions as a symbol of freedom for the world. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat to a white male passenger and was arrested by the Montgomery Police. Her simple act of courage set in motion a chain of events that forever changed American race relations and redirected the course of history. In this one-woman show by actress Joanna Maddox, Rosa’s Park’s life is presented from her childhood days as a field hand.  Joanna Maddox, Community Center.  (Tickets $20)
Noon – 1:15 p.m.:  LUNCH – Lakeside Building (Tickets $8)
1:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.:  BREAKOUT SESSIONS
•    (Meet an Author) The Pensacola and Atlantic Comes to Town – The history of the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad as it came into DeFuniak Springs in 1883, with emphasis on the biography of Frederick DeFuniak, the line’s first President and the namesake of the town.  Thomas Moody, West Florida Railroad Museum (Tickets $8)
•    The Hudson River School:  Recorders of Rivers, Roads, and Rails – All aboard the Hudson River Special for a whirlwind tour, viewed from the observation car of America’s preeminent landscape artists! The Hudson River painters, led by Thomas Cole, sailed up the Hudson River, traversed the Great Plains in covered wagons, and meandered through the White Mountains of New Hampshire by rail, capturing the luminescence of sunsets, the majesty of Yellowstone, and the power of Niagara Falls. Learn how and why they depicted the pristine beauty of the unsettled West. Witness the breathtaking panoramas of Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Asher Brown Durand, John Frederick Kensett, Thomas Moran, and others, men who carved a picturesque niche out of the American wilderness.  Janet Faubel (Tickets $8
•    Performance Tea:  Mae Jemison:  A Voyage in Space –  Actress Joanna Maddox will interpret Dr. Mae Jemison and make you feel you are actually having tea with the remarkable woman who is a chemical engineer, scientist, physician, teacher and astronaut. Through actress Joanna Maddox’s talented presentation, learn how Dr. Jemison’s skills and expertise reflect a determined individual whose contributions to the nation and the world made a difference. Jemison was determined since grade school to explore space and went on to become the first black woman to travel in space aboard the Endeavor on September 12, 1992.  Find out how Dr. Jemison has always followed her dreams, undaunted by the lack of role models in her field or roadblocks to women and minorities. (Note:  This presentation will be repeated for the Saturday Dinner Performance, so Passport holders who did not attend the Pensacola Excursion may wish to avoid this tea since the performance will be repeated at 6:00 p.m.)   Joanna Maddox, Community Center.  (Tickets $20)
3:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.:  BREAKOUT SESSIONS
•    (Meet an Author) The Pensacola and Atlantic Comes to Town – The history of the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad as it came into DeFuniak Springs in 1883, with emphasis on the biography of Frederick DeFuniak, the line’s first President and the namesake of the town.  Thomas Moody, West Florida Railroad Museum (Tickets $8)
•    The Making of a $17 Million Violin – 91-year old world traveler John Lohr will explore the history and the making of the violin; from the priceless Stradivarius to the beautiful on-of-a-kind instruments he handcrafts at home.  John Lohr (Tickets $8)
•    Parlor Reading at the Octagon House – Meet the direct descendents of Wallace Bruce, the longest-serving president of the original Florida Chautauqua assemblies in the very house he lived the remaining days of his life and which also was the original Art Department of the Florida Chautauqua and one of the very first kindergartens in the State of Florida.  Enjoy readings and interpretations by the Wallace Bruce family with wine and cheese.  Rusty Bowman (Tickets $18)
4:45 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.:
•    Meet and Greet Wine Reception with Plein Air Artists:  Wind down from your Pensacola Naval Air Museum Excursion with a relaxing glass of wine while viewing the wonderful artwork painted by artists during the day.  This will get you in the mood for a wonderful dinner performance to follow.  Lakeside Building, 1290 Circle Drive.  (Tickets $10)
6:00 p.m.:  EVENING DINNER PERFORMANCE:
Mae Jemison:  A Voyage in Space – What a journey we have taken together at the 2015 Florida Chautauqua Assembly!  We began with the past starting with our lesson about Bessie Coleman, the first African American female pilot, then progressed to outer space travels with Apollo 13 Astronaut Fred Haise.  We saw travel through the eyes of Rosa Parks and we end our Assembly with a look into the future of space exploration through a remarkable dinner presentation about Astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison.  Actress Joanna Maddox will interpret Dr. Mae Jemison and make you feel you are actually having dinner with the remarkable woman who is a chemical engineer, scientist, physician, teacher and astronaut. Through actress Joanna Maddox’s talented presentation, learn how Dr. Jemison’s skills and expertise reflect a determined individual whose contributions to the nation and the world made a difference. Jemison was determined since grade school to explore space and went on to become the first black woman to travel in space aboard the Endeavor on September 12, 1992.  Find out how Dr. Jemison has always followed her dreams, undaunted by the lack of role models in her field or roadblocks to women and minorities.

Sunday, January 25, 2015
8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.  FREE EXHIBITS
•    Civil War Camp – Lake Yard
•    Florida Frontiersmen Settlement Camp – Lake Yard
•    Tin Can Campers Antique RV and Camper Show – Lake Yard
•    Muscogee Indian Gathering and Encampment – Lake Yard
•    Florida Chautauqua History Exhibit – Lakeside Building, 1290 Circle Drive
•    Plein Air Paint-Out & Art Sale – Lake Yard
Noon – 1:00 pm:  LUNCH – Lakeside Building, 1290 Circle Drive.  (Tickets $8)
    Menu:  Sandwiches, chips, soft drinks / bottled water.
1:30 pm – 2:15 pm:  Civil War Skirmish – Lake Yard