Complete sets

The American Dance Circle is the quarterly publication of the Lloyd Shaw Foundation. The entire series, starting December 1979, is now available online. Individual issues contain notes on dances and dance events, including ongoing discussions of square dances. As one would expect in a publication from this organization, much attention is given to Shaw's many contributions.

Charley Thomas edited the early issues of American Squares. The April 1952 issue marks the transition to Rickey Holden as editor. Later issues were edited or overseen by Rod LaFarge and Frank Kaltman and then Arvid Olson. Along with Sets in Order, it is one of the most important SD journals. We now have available online a complete set of American Squares and its successor publications, New American Squares and American Squaredance.

The complete collection of Sets in Order (which changed its name to Square Dancing in 1968) is available online. The complete run of the magazine was 444 issues. The host is the University of Denver's Penrose Library, home of the Bob Osgood collection. Gardner Patton scanned all the issues to make them available. Patton's attractive and helpful index is shown here; a link to the source files at DU is here.

Northern Junket was a labor of love for Ralph Page, who single-handedly published 165 issues of this journal from 1949 through 1984. The University of New Hampshire's Library of Traditional Music and Dance has digitized and made available a complete set of these magazines, along with biographical information about Page. The library is also the repository for an extensive manuscript collection as well as electronic versions of the syllabi from the annual Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend.

The first four items in this exhibit are all national publications. Grand Square serves a regional readership, members of the Northern New Jersey Square Dancers Association membership. Grand Square was created in March 1959 by Bob Keck. This item includes links to the complete scanned collection.

Panhandle Press is a quarterly publication of the Northwest Florida Square & Round Dance Association Publication. This is one of a series of digitized publications for different regional organizations in Florida, all of whom coordinate through the Florida Federation of Square Dancers. Click for a listing of other publications archived at the Florida Federation website.

Margot Mayo was the leader of the American Square Dance Group, based in New York City. Promenade, the group's monthly magazine, was subtitled A Magazine of American Folk Lore, hinting that the coverage includes music and song as well as dance. The magazine began publication in 1940, making it the nation's oldest square dance journal. This item takes you to a link where 50 copies of the magazine have been archived.