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

Browse Items (402 total)

  • Temporal Coverage is exactly "1950s"
Document

Asilomar Dance Camp

This large set of photos and text all relate to Asilomar, the location in southern California where many dance camps were held. Included in this item are photographs of campers, camp rosters, and… View item
Moving Image

Hillbilly Hare

In 1950, the same year that the Santa Monica square dance attracted 15,000 dancers, Warner Brothers released a new Bugs Bunny cartoon,Hillbilly Hare, testimony to the rising popularity of square dance… View item
Still Image

Frank Messina

Frank Messina and the Mavericks recorded hundreds of titles for the Mac Gregor label, providing music for Fenton "Jonesy" Jones, Bob Van Antwerp, Arnie Kronenberger, Jerry Helt, and more. View item
Document

National Square Dance Convention - 1959 Who's Who

This excerpt from the program of the 1959 National Square Dance Convention lists the better-known presenters at the event. As such, it's a useful snapshot of who was respected enough at that time… View item
Still Image

Don Armstrong - early years in Florida

1. Don & Laverne Armstrong2. Don Armstrong portrait3. Don Armstrong's band4. Don Armstrong - Danceland promo5. Don Armstrong - parade floatThis series of photographs shows caller Don Armstrong in… View item
Document

Jesse Cosby, African-American caller

Article in Ebony magazine profiling African-American square dance caller Jesse Cosby, Waterloo, Iowa. The article references examples of racial discrimination:"Once racial discrimination stymied his… View item
Still Image

Bill Miles, fiddler

Bill Miles was the fiddler on Dick Kraus's series of square dance recordings. Kraus is playing guitar in photo 3. Kraus obviously thought highly of his fiddler--see photo 4.Terry Bell writes: "He was… View item
Website

Santa Monica audio

Square dance caller and music producer Buddy Weaver has an original recording of the dances called at the famed "World's Largest Square Dance" in Santa Monica, CA, in 1950. He has… View item
Document

Texas Folk Dance Camp - history

This scrapbook documents the early years of the Texas Folk Dance Camp, starting in 1949. Inspired by Jane Farwell's camp at Oglebay Institute in West Virginia, the camp brought together Texas… View item
Document

1953 Texas Inaugural Ball square dance program

The custom of having a square dance as part of the Inaugural Ball for the Texas Governor started in 1947; this is the program for the 1953 Inaugural, scheduled for 6:30 PM until midnight. The second… View item
Still Image

Young African Americans Square Dancing - 1952

This photo shows a square dance at the Hallie Q. Brown Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1952. View item
Still Image

Jim Munyon

This album sent us searching to learn more about the two individuals. We've determined that "Munyan" refers to Jim Munyon, who was a southern California dance caller who appears in numerous newspaper… View item