Beginning in 1917, Canadian Chautauquas brought education and entertainment to cities, towns, and villages on the Canadian prairies as travelling Chautauquas visited them each year. For five summers, from 1926 through 1930, Marion Swanson worked as a director for Canadian Chautauquas and photographed her experience. Her family saved many of the letters she wrote home and returned them to her. Marion kept these pictures and letters and a few related items when she moved from British Columbia to Ottawa to marry Albert Whiteley and again when she moved to Guelph following her husband’s death. Late in her life she wrote brief reminiscences about her days on Chautauqua circuits. She had some correspondence with both Nola Erickson and Sheilagh Jameson during the preparation of the book Chautauqua in Canada. Following Marion’s death, her son, Hugh Whiteley, became caretaker of this material.
The book includes selections from this collection to put together a narrative with a two-fold purpose: to present a picture of a noteworthy Canadian institution of a century ago and to show the dedication and strength of one of its faithful workers, Marion Swanson Whiteley.