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

Browse Items (1940 total)

Sound

Darling Nellie Gray - Happy Hale

Happy Hale was a caller from Bernardston, MA, and some have speculated that Ralph Page patterned his style as a singing caller on Hale's technique. Other Happy Hale recordings at the Library of… View item
Moving Image

Bible Grove Square Dancers, Bethel, Missouri, 1989

Dancers from Bible Grove in Scotland County, MO at the Bethel Fiddle Convention, Bethel, MO. June 1989. Fiddling by Chirps Smith and Charlie Walden. Others in the band are Forrest Rose on bass, Dennis… View item
Sound

West Coast Blues - Blind Blake

There were hundreds of 78 rpm records with dance calls released in the 1920s and 1930s; this clip from Blind Blake's "West Coast Blues" is one example. Other African Americans callers who appear on… View item
Sound

Square Dance Fight on Ball Top Mountain

Phil Jamison: These are square dance skits on two sides of a 78 (Vocalion 5419) with a few random calls by John Dilleshaw (aka Seven Foot Dilly) of Paulding County, GA. It was recorded in Atlanta in… View item
Sound

"Wild Bill" Reagan

Duane "Wild Bill" Reagan was a square dance caller perhaps best known for his performance at the Expo 74 festival in Spokane, Washington. Featured here are two clips of his calling at that event, a… View item
Document

Let's Stop Hashing Our Squares

This essay, written more than 60 years ago, speaks to the longstanding tension between those who like predictable dance figures and those who seek continual variety. The author admits "that I am just… View item
Document

Henry Ford Shakes a Wicked Hoof - Literary Digest, 1925

Contemporary account of Henry Ford's interest in reviving older dances. View item
Document

Fiddling to Henry Ford - Literary Digest, 1926

Henry Ford attracted considerable attention when he showcased the dance fiddling of Mellie Dunham, from Maine. This lengthy contemporary account describes that relationship in detail. "Mr.… View item
Document

Pageant of American Square Dance History, 1959

This lengthy presentation of square dance history was presented at the Eighth National Square Dance Convention in Denver, 1959. Researched and organized by Dorothy Shaw after Lloyd Shaw's death in… View item
Still Image

John and Mary Josy Bradford

John Bradford (age 13) and his sister Mary Jo (16), also known as Mary Josy to differentiate her from her mother, Mary Jo Bradford, went for the first time to Shaw's summer dance class in 1947,… View item
Document

Lloyd Shaw - Christmas letters

These are three letters written as "annual belated Christmas greetings" from Lloyd and Dorothy Shaw to participants in the Cheyenne Mountain School summer classes. They provide a good sense… View item
Document

Lloyd Shaw Fellowship - John Bradford

John Bradford was 13 years old in 1947 when his mother, Mary Jo Bradford, took their family to attend Lloyd Shaw's summer class in square dancing. (He and his sister were the only two teenagers… View item