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

Browse Items (1950 total)

Website

Panhandle Press

Quarterly publication of the Northwest Florida Square & Round Dance Association Publication. This is one of a series of digitized publications for different regional organizations in Florida, all… View item
Document

Herb Greggerson - newspaper, 1951

Newspaper account of Herb Greggerson's appearance in Milwaukee, including his response to the question of how does a square dance caller get to the top of his profession. View item
Document

Square Dance Festival, NH, 1951

This magazine article focuses on the 4-H club of Strafford County, New Hampshire. The photographs were taken at a square dance festival that illustrates one aspect of the group's activities. The… View item
Document

"The Texas Cattle Country and Cowboy Square Dance" – Olcutt Sanders

This article, scholarly yet accessible, provides an excellent look at square dancing in west Texas in the late 1800s. He starts with a look at the conditions that set this region apart from… View item
Document

"Social Dancing in America" - Rod LaFarge

This lengthy history of social dance was written by Rod LaFarge and appeared over three years in American Squares magazine. LaFarge begins with a short look at English country dance, moves to dancing… View item
Moving Image

Cabool, Missouri - Square dance with Bob Holt

This is the last of 11 clips filmed at a 1997 dance in Cabool, Missouri, featuring fiddler Bob Holt, a National Heritage Fellowship recipient. Calling is done by dancers in the squares, different… View item
Moving Image

Two-Step at a Square Dance

In modern square dance programs, squares are often intermingled with round dances. Similarly, traditional dance programs often involve a variety of dances other than squares—waltz, polka,… View item
Moving Image

Broom Dance - Ava, Missouri

In modern square dance programs, squares are often intermingled with round dances. Similarly, traditional dance programs often involve a variety of dances other than squares—waltz, polka, schottische,… View item
Document

Sashay newsletter, Vermont, 1953

Sashay was a country dance bulletin published by musician Emerson Lang, of Danville, Vermont. It's clear from the contents that Lang's readers were open to many styles-- mention is made of squares,… View item
Document

'Sophisticated' City Folks Are Getting Rural Rhythm

Newspaper story (1946) datelined New York that describes the post-WWII enthusiasm about square dancing: ---lt's hep these days to be a square—a square dancer, that is. Folks from 7 to 70 are… View item
Document

1940 Texas Square Dance Contest

Newspaper accounts of a square dance competition won by Bob Sumrall's Abilene set. The story goes into detail about each of the six competing teams,naming each of the dancers, the judges, and… View item
Still Image

Square Dance Certificate

This "diploma" was awarded to graduates of a series of introductory modern square dance lessons. In the 1950s, square dancing still played on its country roots, witness the language used in… View item