Square Dance History Project
The rich story of North American square dance finally has a home in the digital age.

Browse Items (20 total)

Still Image

El Paso squares, 1940s

This selection of photos shows the Sun City Promenaders, a square dance club in El Paso, and several Square Dance Festivals in 1947. The photos are from the Jimmy Clossin Papers at the University of… View item
Still Image

Jimmy Clossin - photos

This selection of photographs comes from the Jimmy Clossin Papers, held in the Archives of the University of Denver. View item
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Henry Hudson - Texas fiddler

This photo shows Texas fiddler Henry Hudson standing with dance leader and organizer Lillie Lee Baker. (The boy at left is holding the 78 rpm album of Texas Square Dance Music that was recorded in… View item
Still Image

Texas Starlings - teenage dancers, 1947

This photo shows the Texas Starlings, a teenage group of square dancers, in Austin, Texas, 1947. The accompany article fromFoot 'n' Fiddlemagazine describes a session by Herb Greggerson for teens in… View item
Document

Jimmy Clossin - personal scrapbook

Jimmy Clossin, of El Paso, was one of the most influential Texas callers in the 1930s and beyond. Author ofWest Texas Square Dances, he also produced numerous albums though as far as we know, he never… View item
Document

Jimmy Clossin - bio

Biography of Jimmy Clossin, from 1947. Although SDHP has numerous items related to Clossin, we would love to add an audio file of his calling. To the best of our knowledge, he never recorded… View item
Document

Texas Callers - 1948

This cover fromFoot 'n' Fiddle magazine puts the spotlight on six prominent Texas callers: Jack Fomby, Jimmy Clossin, Ray Smith, Grady Wilson, Red Smith and Bob Sumrall. Texas dancers and callers… View item
Sound

Ladies Whirligig - two New England versions

Here is the same basic dance called by two New England callers who overlapped. The first is an excerpt from a recording by Ralph Page; the second is a live recording of Louise Winston from 1970.The… View item
Document

A Square Dance Pioneer: Jimmy Clossin

This summary of an interview with Jimmy Clossin by Miriam Gray appeared in 1960. More than 50 years later, it is impressive the ways in which he anticipated the challenges facing the square dance… View item
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West Texas Square Dances - Index

This is the cover and index of the booklet published by Jimmy Clossin and Carl Hertzog, showing dances that were common to that region around 1950. The book offers a dictionary, "Around-the-Ring… View item
Document

Foot 'n' Fiddle  (Texas)

This journal was started in 1946 by Marlys Swenson (later Marlys Waller) and Anne Pittman, joined by Olcutt Sanders as another editor. It is among the earliest square dance magazines—Rod… View item
Document

West Texans Do It Differently

In this 1949 article, caller Jimmy Clossin describes some of the distinguishing characteristics of west Texas square dance: "Many people think when Western Square Dancing is mentioned that we… View item