se term as President made Wellesley great. Mr. Thomas
Nelson Page gave readings from his own stories of southern life before
the Civil War. A young man appeared on the platform for the first time,
but not the last, who was destined to stand forth in a few years as one
of the foremost of Americans. This was Theodore Roosevelt, whose
lectures at Chautauqua were later expanded into the volumes on _The
Winning of the West_. Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, soldier and
historian, also gave lectures.

At the opening of the season in 1891, the members of the Chautauqua
Circle counted more than a hundred thousand. Nine classes had been
graduated, another large class was to receive its diplomas during that
summer, and there were three undergraduate classes each of nearly twenty
thousand members, with another class as large in prospect. Only a small
section of each class could be present at Chautauqua, the vast majority
of its members being far away, some in distant lands. But among those
who came to the Assembly, the social spirit was strong. They loved to
meet each other, held social reunions and business meetings constantly.
Each of the four oldest classes, from '82 to '85, had its own building
as headquarters, but all the later classes were homeless and in need of
homes. It was a great boon to these classes when at last, in 1891, the
C. L. S. C. Alumni Hall was completed and opened. Its eight class-rooms
were distributed by lot and furnished by the gifts of the members. As
new classes were organized year after year, they were welcomed by the
classes already occupying the rooms. It was not many years before each
room became the home of two classes, then after eight years more of
three classes, meeting on different days, but united in the general
reception on the evening before the Recognition Day. Beside the eight
class-rooms on the second floor of the Alumni Building there is a large
hall which is used before the Recognition Day by the graduating class,
and during the rest of the season by the new entering class. In 1916,
after the death of Miss Kate F. Kimball, Secretary of the C. L. S. C,
this hall was named "The Kimball Room." The Alumni Building with its
wide porches became at Chautauqua a social center for the members of the
Circle and many have been the friendships formed there. On this season
of 1891 the United Presbyterian House was opened.

The section of the Summer Schools formerly known as The Teachers'
Retreat