Kentucky Chautauqua Presenter Program is a grant from Kentucky Humanities that funds individual performers and historians to develop and deliver first-person dramatizations of historically significant Kentuckians at schools and community organizations statewide. The program has featured more than 70 historical figures since its founding in 1992, covering subjects ranging from civil rights leaders to Appalachian educators and musicians.

Selected presenters receive a $1,000 script honorarium plus $350 per performance. Applicants must reside in Kentucky and pass an audition and selection process. The program deadline is April 1, 2026.

Due to federal funding cuts, reduced-cost bookings are limited through October 31, 2026.

Kentucky Chautauqua® – Kentucky Humanities Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit About Kentucky Humanities Kentucky Reads Scissors Paper Rock Smithsonian Exhibit - Americans About Kentucky Humanities Kentucky Chautauqua in the Schools Program Coordinator's Report Kentucky Chautauqua Cash Request Form Due to federal funding cuts, Kentucky Humanities is only able to offer a limited number of reduced cost bookings for Kentucky Chautauqua.

Reduced cost bookings will be released throughout the year, and updates will be posted on kyhumanities. org. Organizations are limited to ONE reduced cost Kentucky Chautauqua until October 31, 2026.

You may book additional Kentucky Chautauqua programs for the full cost of $450. We currently have a limited number of reduced cost bookings available. If for some reason, you are not eligible for a reduced-cost rate booking, one of our staff will reach out to you.

We urge you to contact your Congress members and show your support for Kentucky Humanities’ work throughout the Commonwealth. Let them know how important Kentucky Humanities programs are in your community and urge them to support the NEH and the state humanities councils. Since its beginning in 1992, Kentucky Chautauqua® has brought to life more than 70 people from Kentucky's past — both famous and unknown.

Our Kentucky Chautauqua performers travel to schools and community organizations throughout the state delivering historically accurate dramatizations of Kentuckians who made valuable contributions to the history of the Commonwealth. The current Kentucky Chautauqua cast includes 23 figures from Kentucky's rich and colorful history.

From William Wells Brown's struggle for freedom and John Marshall Harlan's role as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, to Alice Lloyd's struggle to bring education to Appalachia and Jean Ritchie's musical legacy, Kentucky Chautauqua offers something for every classroom and community group. Kentucky Educational Television (KET) aired an episode of Kentucky Muse about Kentucky Chautauqua. Click here to watch.

Swipe below for a brief description of each of our current Kentucky Chautauqua dramas. Email: booneactor@gmail. com Daniel Boone is the quintessential Kentuckian, having blazed the trails that would become the map of Kentucky through courage, love of the newfound region, and his cunning facility with the land and its native peoples.

Born November 2, 1734, Boone quickly demonstrated a preference for the outdoors and established himself as an accomplished hunter and explorer. In 1767, he first visited Kentucky and found this new territory as beautiful as it was dangerous, as it was hotly contested by native populations and the ever-advancing British colonists. Boone was an intrepid adventurer and natural leader whose exploits justify his larger-than-life reputation.

In 1784, John Filson published The Discovery, Settlement And Present State of Kentucke . This influential book chronicled the adventures of Boone and established him not only as an important settler and explorer of Kentucky and the west, but as an American legend. Email: betsywritesitall@gmail.

com Jemima Boone, the fourth child of Daniel and Rebecca Bryan Boone, was born in North Carolina, on October 4, 1762. Destined to live a life beyond the borders of civilization, she helped pioneer two American frontiers: Kentucky and Missouri. Typical of pioneers in the era, Boone endured heartbreak and suffering almost unimaginable to modern Americans.

One of the most well-known stories to come out of Kentucky's pioneer past involved 14-year-old Jemima. In July 1776, Boone was kidnapped by a group of Native Americans. Her father led a search party that caught up with the captors and rescued the girls after three days in captivity.

In 1777, Boone married Flanders Callaway, a union that lasted nearly 50 years. Together with the other settlers at Boonesborough, they endured times of terrible suffering, facing starvation, cold, and the ever-present fear of attack. Email: kellybrengelman@windstream.

net Madeline McDowell Breckinridge Madeline McDowell Breckinridge — or Madge, as she preferred — was both a state and national leader of the women’s suffrage movement, and was highly instrumental in Kentucky’s ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting American women the right to vote.

Born in Franklin County and raised in Lexington, Madge, the great-granddaughter of Henry Clay, was expected to dedicate her life to public service — but she surpassed every expectation.

While her biggest triumph was the women’s suffrage movement, Madge was also a progressive reformer who worked tirelessly to advance the living conditions of the poor, established educational programs, changed the outlook of child welfare and juvenile rehabilitation, and promoted the need for tuberculosis research. Unafraid and unapologetic, Madge used every opportunity to reach anyone who would listen.

She recited countless speeches and marched in many demonstrations, calling for "Votes for Women” — and proudly cast her ballot in the U.S. Presidential Election of 1920. Email: janet. scott@uky.

edu Script by Janet Scott with Bo List Mary Carson Breckinridge founded the world-famous Frontier Nursing Service, establishing a team of trained nurse-midwives. Often referred to as “Angels on Horseback,” they risked their lives daily to deliver babies and provide public healthcare in the remote mountains of eastern Kentucky beginning in the 1920s.

Mary recognized the need for accessible healthcare for all Americans and through years of training, heartbreak, triumphs, and hardships she was successful in proving that if the needs of children in the most rural regions could be met, entire families could thrive anywhere in the world.

An internationalist and visionary in the field of public healthcare, Mary went on to establish the Frontier Nursing University, which currently educates public health practitioners who have built upon Mary’s vision and carried the work of the Frontier Nursing Service around the world. The story of Mary’s courage and triumph over tragedy are an inspiration for empathy and compassion in our world today.

William Wells Brown was the first published African American novelist and playwright. Brown was born to an enslaved mother. Due to inadequate record keeping for slaves, the time and place is not assured.

He was likely born in 1814 or 1815 in the Mt. Sterling area or in Lexington. Brown experienced the dissolution and sale of his own family and witnessed the harsh and brutal separation of other families in the institution of slavery.

After years of failed attempts to escape slavery, for which he was jailed and beaten, Brown finally escaped to a life of freedom in 1834. William Wells Brown went on to become a public advocate of the abolitionist and temperance movements. His memoir, Narrative of William Wells Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself , had a direct influence on the abolitionist movement.

In 1853, he published Clotel ; or the President's Daughter and in 1858, a play The Escape ; or a Leap for Freedom . Email: cynresor@outlook. com Lettice Pierce Bryan was a pioneering but often overlooked figure in Kentucky history.

Born near Danville, she authored The Kentucky Housewife —the first published cookbook in Kentucky—a remarkable achievement that transcended mere recipes to become a vivid record of 19th-century domestic life. At 19, Lettice married Dr. Edmund Bryan and went on to raise 14 children while managing a bustling household during a time of enormous social and political upheaval.

Kentucky was caught between Union and Confederate loyalties during the Civil War and was transforming rapidly under the early Industrial Revolution. Amid these changes, Lettice documented the rhythms of daily life through a lens rarely preserved: the homemaker’s perspective. The Kentucky Housewife is far more than a cookbook—it’s a treasure trove of period recipes, household remedies, practical advice, and cultural insights.

Through her work, Lettice provides a compelling glimpse into the lived experience of American women before modern conveniences, highlighting their essential yet often unrecognized contributions to family, community, and society. Email: booneactor@gmail. com Henry Clay was born in 1777, a child of the American Revolution.

Throughout his life, Clay earned many titles: Kentucky State Representative, United States Representative, Speaker of the House, Secretary of State, and United States Senator. One name and title that eluded Clay, however, was “President of the United States. ” Yet, he was one of the most widely known and respected public servants of his day, garnering a reputation for bringing people together into common purpose and consensus.

His compelling oratory ability and diplomatic talents are widely credited with helping to hold the Union together long enough to survive the eventual Civil War, as well as to forge a national identity that could outlast the devastating conflict. Henry Clay famously said that he would “rather be right than be President.

” While he never did reach the Presidency of our nation, Clay’s legacy as “The Great Compromiser” may very well have saved it. Email: elizabeth. lawson83@gmail.

com The daughter of George and Rachel Stanley, Charlotte Dupuy was born in Cambridge, Maryland, in 1787. Her parents were owned and enslaved by Daniel Parker. Eight short years later, Dupuy was sold to James Condon for $100 and was forced to leave her family.

In 1805, at the age of 18, Charlotte was brought to Kentucky by Mr. Condon and was registered as his slave. While in Kentucky she met Aaron Dupuy, who was enslaved by Henry Clay and his wife, Lucretia. Charlotte and Aaron were married in 1806 and Charlotte was sold to the Clay family.

In 1825, the Clay family moved to Washington, D. C. as Henry Clay served as Secretary of State.

Charlotte found a lawyer who filed papers for her and her children, suing for their freedom. Her petition was denied and Charlotte was jailed for refusing to return to Kentucky with the Clays. She was later emancipated by Henry Clay in 1840.

Email: obadiah. er@gmail. com As the son of a slave-holding father, John Gregg Fee was raised witnessing the material and financial advantages slave labor provided.

When he graduated from college and enrolled in Lane Theological Seminary, Fee began to understand the inherent wrong and destructiveness of slavery. He was determined to become an Abolitionist and work for the immediate end to slavery. Fee committed his life and work to ending slavery and discrimination at home in Kentucky.

Fee's dedication and passion for the abolishment of slavery gave him the strength to persevere through the wrath and disappointment of his father, financial hardship, and threats to his safety. His work led to the founding of Union Church of Christ, an anti-slavery, non-denominational church, which planted the seeds for what would become Berea College. Email: eddieprice.

1954@att. net Roscoe Tarleton Goose was born on a Jeffersontown, Kentucky, farm in 1891. As a child, Roscoe took a job riding horses for a blacksmith in Louisville to help his family's finances.

Fearless and slight of build, Goose was a natural horseman. While exercising horses at Churchill Downs, Goose was approached by trainer John Kuprion to ride as a jockey. By autumn of 1910, Roscoe Tarleton Goose was the leading money winning jockey at Churchill Downs and was one of the top riders in America.

A few years later, he had attracted the attention of trainer and farm owner Thomas Patrick Hayes. Hayes had a horse called Donerail he wanted Goose to ride in the Kentucky Derby. In what was a stunning victory, Roscoe Tarleton Goose and Donerail won the 1913 Kentucky Derby.

The race odds were set at 91:1, the longest odds of a Derby winner, a record which still stands. Email: aliceontheroad1955@gmail. com Kentucky's Most Famous ABCs Mystery writing was in Sue Taylor Grafton's blood.

Born in Louisville, she grew up in a household of voracious readers. After receiving a degree in English from the University of Louisville, Grafton moved to California where she worked odd jobs, published several mainstream novels, and worked as a Hollywood screenwriter. Grafton's first mystery novel, A is for Alibi , was released in 1982, setting the stage for her best-selling alphabet murder mystery novels.

Grafton's central character, Kinsey Millhone, worked for just causes, was one of the first female hard-hitting detectives, and paved a new road for both female mystery writers and their heroines. The novels explored various social issues: family, domestic violence, child abuse, discrimination, homelessness, and the justice system. Grafton wrote 25 best-selling alphabet novels before she died.

Email: ed_smith@georgetowncollege. edu Justice John Marshall Harlan During his 33 years on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice John Marshall Harlan dissented in some of the court's most important civil rights cases. In one of the most famous dissents in history, Plessy v.

Ferguson , which upheld the constitutionality of segregation, Harlan wrote: "Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows or tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law."

Though Harlan was born in Boyle County to a prominent slaveholding family, and was once a slaveholder himself, he fought for the Union during the Civil War after graduating from Centre College and earning his law degree at Transylvania.

He was often chastised for contradicting himself politically, but Harlan always maintained that the law afforded him the right to change his mind — and his support for equal rights after the Civil War never waned. Email: annegshelby@gmail. com Feisty, funny, and completely fearless, Aunt Molly Jackson lived for nearly 50 years in the coal camps of Southeastern Kentucky, where her father, brothers, husband, and sons were miners.

In the camps, Aunt Molly delivered babies, nursed the sick, and wrote and sang songs about the miners' lives. Her "Hungry Ragged Blues," for example, tells of miners during the Depression who regularly risked their lives underground, but did not earn enough to feed and clothe their children.

Aunt Molly' songs, her eloquence, and her intimate knowledge of life in the camps impressed Theodore Dreiser and his committee of writers when they visited Kentucky in 1931. Dreiser encouraged Aunt Molly to move to New York City, where her heartfelt songs and lively stories made her a popular and well-known spokesperson for Kentucky miners.

Today, Aunt Molly's songs and stories take us back to the Eastern and Western Kentucky coalfields of the early 20th century. Email: forrestloeffler@gmail. com Much is known about President Abraham Lincoln.

But who was the Hodgenville, Kentucky, native before he arrived in the White House to lead the United States through the Civil War? Largely self-educated, Lincoln moved from one professional pursuit to another: carpenter, riverboat man, store clerk, soldier, merchant, postmaster, black-smith, and surveyor. His intellect, curiosity, compassion, and ambition would eventu-ally lead him to greatness.

He settled in Springfield, Illinois, in 1837 to practice law. Lincoln’s political career began in 1834, when he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives where he served until 1842. Five years later he served a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1847-1849.

His run for a second term was unsuccessful due to his unpopular opposition to the Mexican War. Following defeat, Lincoln returned to practicing law full-time in Springfield. Email: MTL@catherinegaffney.

com Website: http://www. catherinegaffney. com/marytoddlincoln Mrs. President: A Nation Divided Mary Todd Lincoln was one of the most extraordinary women of her time, and endures as a fascinating and important figure in American history.

Born into a prosperous family in Lexington, Kentucky, she was uncommonly educated for a young woman of the early 1800s. When she moved to Springfield, Illinois, her sparkling personality and sharp wit earned her a place at the center of social circles, as well as the attention of several aspiring politicians. Among them, the promising young attorney, Abraham Lincoln.

Mary’s encouragement and advice helped propel Lincoln to a political career that would reach its pinnacle election to the presidency, with Mary at his side as an influential, if controversial, First Lady. With wit, warmth, and raw honesty, Mary reflects on her Kentucky upbringing, her passionate marriage to Abraham Lincoln, the heartbreak of personal loss, and the triumphs and tragedies of the Civil War.

As she prepares for an evening at Ford’s Theatre, she shares stories of love, grief, resilience, and hope—offering a deeply human portrait of a woman who stood beside one of history’s greatest leaders. Email: aliceontheroad1955@gmail. com Called "the stubbornest woman" in Kentucky, Alice Spencer Geddes Lloyd was born near Boston.

Her way with words led to a career as a journalist, and later, as the editor of the first all-female newspaper staff in America. Health problems forced Alice at age 40 to move to a warmer climate. She packed up her typewriter and headed by horse and buggy to the mountains of Kentucky.

Acceptance from the people of Eastern Kentucky came slowly. Yet, Alice stayed and showed the good one person can do. She wanted to educate Appalachian children through college at little or no cost to them.

Alice and her friend June Buchanan started Caney Junior College (later renamed Alice Lloyd College). Her journey included a gunshot scare, an invitation to the White House during Herbert Hoover's term, a Hollywood television appearance, a major story in Reader's Digest, and many mountain miracles. Email: woods.

lisam@gmail. com "Mem'ries of a Coal Miner's Daughter Before she was crowned the “Queen of Country Music,” Loretta Lynn blazed a difficult trail through poverty, heartbreak, and resilience. Born in Butcher Holler, Kentucky, she was the daughter of a coal miner—a humble beginning that shaped the soul of her music.

At just 15, she married Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn and moved across the country to Washington, where her journey as a singer began in modest venues with a borrowed guitar and bold determination. Her first hit, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl”, marked the beginning of a career defined by fearless storytelling. After relocating to Nashville, she joined the Grand Ole Opry and signed with Decca Records, becoming a household name.

Loretta’s deeply personal songs gave voice to working-class women and their everyday struggles—with themes that tackled marriage, motherhood, ambition, and heartache with unapologetic candor. Throughout her life, Loretta never lost touch with her Appalachian roots, often returning to the tiny cabin of her youth.

Her groundbreaking hit “Coal Miner’s Daughter” remains a defining anthem—not just of her life story, but of country music’s capacity to tell real stories that matter. Email: madame. mentelle@gmail.

com Fleeing the brutality of the French Revolution, Charlotte Victorie LeClerc Mentelle arrived in America in 1794. After a rough beginning in Gallipolis, Ohio, Charlotte, and her husband eventually made their way to Lexington where they opened Mentelle’s School for Young Ladies. Madame Mentelle taught social etiquette, literature, dancing, and French.

She also worked to build character, instill discipline, and foster a strong work ethic in her students. Among Mentelle’s School for Young Ladies’ star students was Mary Ann Todd, who would go on to become Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States. Despite often being labeled as an eccentric by people in Lexington, Mentelle believed in equality and supported education for women.

Email: jeanritchieactor@gmail. com Traditional musician, songwriter, poet, commercial performer, recording artist, author and composer Jean Ritchie, born in Viper, Perry County, Kentucky, in 1922, was the youngest of Balis and Abigail Ritchie's 14 children. She began her recording career in 1952, signing with Elektra Records.

Throughout her career she recorded more than 35 albums, which strongly reflected her Kentucky heritage and featured her playing the mountain dulcimer. Known as the "Mother of Folk," Ritchie was a major contributor to the national revival of folk music across American during the mid to second half of the 20th century. Artists including Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Dolly Parton have covered her songs.

Jean Ritchie was also an outspoken environmental activist. Her song, "Black Waters" is a well known protest song that Ritchie wrote about strip mining in Kentucky. Email: ed_smith@georgetowncollege.

edu During the 42 years he coached the University of Kentucky men's basketball team, Adolph Rupp raised the game to near-religious status in the Commonwealth. Rupp's teams won 880 games, four national championships, and one Olympic gold medal.

There was a flip side to all this success — the team was suspended for the 1952-53 season after a point-shaving scandal, and Rupp was heavily criticized for taking too long to integrate the Kentucky basketball program. Adolph Rupp grew up in Kansas, the son of immigrant farmers. He played three years of varsity basketball at the University of Kansas, but never scored a point.

He began his coaching career in Kansas, but soon moved on to high schools in Iowa and Illinois. The University of Kentucky hired him in 1930. Rupp's genius for public relations and his team's winning ways combined to make Kentucky basketball a statewide phenomenon, a point of pride around which Kentuckians of all stripes still rally.

Email: janet. scott@uky. edu The Last Shaker at Pleasant Hill When the first Shakers arrived in Kentucky, they built their village at Pleasant Hill on the western frontier, where they lived a privileged, communal life as educated artisans with their "hands to work and hearts to God."

The Shakers empowered women, freed enslaved people and served as an army of peacemakers during the Civil War. Within months of her arrival at Pleasant Hill, Mary Settles worked together with her Shaker sisters and brothers to provide the "simple gifts" of food and medical care to the armies of both the North and South.

The last Shaker to live at Pleasant Hill, Mary Settles served as an eldress, deaconess, and teacher of women, maintaining the highest educational standards for the public school at Pleasant Hill. The story of these revolutionary Kentuckians is affirming of our nation's courageous history of passive resistance in the fight for civil rights and offers a vision of social justice for our future. Email: michaelr.

jones2@ky. gov Charles Young was the third African American to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point. Young was born near Mays Lick, Kentucky, in Mason County, on March 12, 1864, a year before the end of the Civil War.

His parents, Gabriel and Arminta, moved to Ripley, Ohio, to raise their son after the war ended. Young had a distinguished career of more than 30 years in the United States Army, rising from lieutenant to colonel, all while battling racism in a nearly all-white officer corps. Young’s success in an army that was not quite ready to embrace him required steadfast devotion and perseverance.

He was at the height of his career when America entered World War I. Young accomplished much during his career, including being the first African American superintendent of a national park, the first African American military attaché, and the highest-ranking African American Regular Army officer at the time of his death.