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

Browse Items (201 total)

  • Temporal Coverage is exactly "1940s"
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"Meet Your Honey, Go Hog Wild"

This collection of anecdotes describes early dances and social norms in Texas cowboy country. View item
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Bob Sumrall - newspaper clippings

Two newspaper clippings about Texas caller Bob Sumrall. The first, from January 14, 1947, focuses on a new square dance team that he formed and that will be performing at the Inaugural Ball for the… View item
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Veteran Square Dancers - California's oldest club?

This short article from 1946 describes a square dance club that has been meeting regularly for 17 years without missing a night, which would mean it started in 1929. The group counts 300 "rural… View item
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Tucson Square Dance (1950 article)

Magazine article (1950) describing Arizona square dances and caller George Waudby. The first PDF is a facsimile of the magazine article; it is followed by an easier-to-read version of the text. (Also… View item
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Pappy's Pupils

Article in View item
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Square Dances for White Collars (1941 article)

Article in Time magazine (1941) describing popularity of square dancing, evidenced by record sales (Victor, Columbia, Decca) and the work of teacher and caller Lawrence Loy. View item
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Forward Up Six - Adrian Hull

The author discusses regional variations of the common square dance formation of three facing three, with lone dancers at the heads. View item
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Stepney Barn

The Stepney Barn was constructed by Al Brundage. In his description below, note that the barn opened in 1948 with 442 dancers, testimony to the popularity of square dancing at that time. Readers… View item
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Al Brundage recollections

Al Brundage wrote these recollections of his experiences growing up in Connecticut and the growth of square dancing. His story includes discovering square dance as a boy, followed by the whole… View item
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Big circle dance - Manny Wiener & American Square Dance Group

Caller Manny Wiener leads a big circle dance—here introduced as a Kentucky running set—with members of Margot Mayo's American Square Dance Group. This is a portion of a half hour radio… View item
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The Singing Caller

This book went through three editions from 1944 to 1951, testimony to the popularity of singing square dance calls in that period. The Table of Contents shows many familiar dances; others are set to… View item
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Lady Round Two, Gent Cut Through (clip) - Arkie Woodchopper

Arkansas "Arkie" Woodchopper was the stage name and persona adopted by Luther Ossenbrink. He was a star of the WLS National Barn Dance show, and he recorded more than three dozen sides between 1929… View item