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

Browse Items (1926 total)

Still Image

Square Acres - square dance barn

This set of photos documents the construction of Howard Hogue's large square dance barn in E. Bridgewater, MA. It was one of the first and certainly the most active of the commercial square dance… View item
Document

Origin of Appalachian Square Dance

By ":Appalachian square dance," the author is referring to big circle or big set dances, not specifically to four-couple squares. Thurston rejects the notion that Appalachian squares did not… View item
Website

Arizona Square Dance - 1954

This item contains images of Phoenix college students square dancing outside of the Arizona Star at Western Saddle Club on October 28, 1954 in Phoenix, Arizona. The link takes you to the nine photos… View item
Website

Ontario Traditional Music Library - Dance

Ian Bell's collection of recordings and written music, all pertaining to traditional Canadian dance and song.In Bell's words: Since the late 1970s I have been seeking out, learning, performing and… View item
Document

Texas Square Dance Contests

These are a series of newspaper clippings made by J. Olcutt Sanders, documenting Texas square dance competitions. (Unfortunately, most of them are undated.) We assume that these are from Fort Worth;… View item
Website

Kentucky Square Dances

An early (1928) collection of figures collected "from callers in Kentucky who are familiar with the old square dances as they are danced in the Kentucky Mountains and elsewhere in the state."This is… View item
Sound

MacNamara's Band - Irene Hewitt

Irene Hewitt was an Australia caller, here doing a well-known singing square. View item
Website

The Life and Times of Joe Thompson

This 27 minute documentary about North Carolina fiddler Joe Thompson is a look at music and dance in African-American communities, not just in the 20th century but reaching back in time. Thompson and… View item
Moving Image

Irving Andert interview

Video or just audio Interview with Connecticut square dance caller Irving Andert, conducted by Paul Trowbridge, July 9, 1983, recorded in the Brooklyn (CT) Grange. At that time, Andert had been… View item
Document

Washington Square Dance

The song by Irving Berlin comes from Call Me Madam, a 1950 production. The plot of the musical is, according to a London review, "nonsensical fluff," concerning a Washington society matron appointed… View item
Moving Image

To Hear Your Banjo Play - 1947
 with Pete Seeger and Margot Mayo's American Square Dance Group

Filmed in 1947 with Pete Seeger as the host, this show explores the banjo in particular, including plenty of attention to American traditional music and dance. Starting at 12:05, the film includes the… View item
Document

Glencoe Promenade

Description of a square dance figure from south-central New Mexico; the figure probably goes back to the late 1800s. View item