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

Browse Items (1924 total)

Website

Sets in Order yearbooks

Bob Osgood published in 1954 a Five Year Book that printed every dance that had been published in Sets in Order in the first five years. In 1956 he issued the first Yearbook that included everything… View item
Still Image

Sets in Order - office people

This series of photographs shows some of the people involved with producingSets in Ordermagazine. The first picture shows Bob Osgood in the center at what appears to be an editorial meeting. Artist… View item
Document

Smoky Mountain Square Dances

NOTE: This is a large file and might take a while to load.To read the actual booklet, choose the DOWNLOAD link or select the source file located by scrolling to Additional Files.This collection,… View item
Document

Social Dance in the Mormon West

Detailed look at the role that social dance played (and still plays) in Mormon society. The publication includes a lengthy essay by Larry Shumway looking at dance throughout Mormon history, including… View item
Still Image

Some Practical Considerations

This short essay was part of Square and Round Dance, Calls and Explanations, a bookled created by MacGregor Records and distributed along with some of the albums of square dance recordings. We've been… View item
Document

Song of the HIGH-LEVEL Dancer - poem

The push for "high level dancing" appeared in the 1950s as square dancing took off. Some dancers wanted ever-more-challenging programs and they were often reluctant to dance with less-skilled dancers.… View item
Document

Southern Dancer (Memphis)

View item
Document

Southern Missouri Jig Dancing

This 28 page booklet was Volume One of a projected series on Traditional Dance in Missouri. It is based on extensive fieldwork by the authors in two southern Missouri counties, Wayne and Douglas. The… View item
Document

Square Dance ~ Where?

A comprehensive, large (72 pp.) booklet describing square dance activities in northern California in the mid-1950s, attesting to the popularity of the activity at that time and place. Note:… View item
Document

Square Dance News (Iowa)

View item
Document

Square Dance Workbooks 1, 2, and 3 - Don Armstrong

These are three books of square dance calls published by Don Armstrong, starting in 1956. As such, they give a good sense of the repertoire at that time. View item
Document

Square Dances of the Southwest

This 1951 booklet, by caller Butch Nelson, is a useful collection of calls from that region. You can hear Nelson calling Oklahoma Cyclone here.The Related Items provide audio or video clips, called by… View item