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

Browse Items (357 total)

  • Collection: Northern squares
Moving Image

Cape Breton - Inverness Set

Cape Breton square dance: this is the Inverness set, recorded in Brook Village, Nova Scotia. The video contains three figures.Viewers wanting to see the figures in more detail can look at these three… View item
Moving Image

Cape Breton - Iona-Washabuck set

Cape Breton square dance: Three figures of the Iona-Washabuck set, recorded at Boisdale, Nova Scotia. The Iona set is the same as the Washabuck set (hence the conjoined name), and is closely related… 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
Sound

Ladies Whirligig - two New England versions

Here is the same basic dance called by two New England callers who overlapped. The first is an excerpt from a recording by Ralph Page; the second is a live recording of Louise Winston from 1970.The… View item
Moving Image

Roll the Barrel - Pistol Packin' Mama

Singing square called by Frank Kendall, Gassetts, Vermont. The Gassetts Grange hosts a monthly dance with a mix of round dances and traditional Eastern singing squares, with live music provided by… View item
Still Image

Otto and Marguerite Wood – photos

Three photos of Otto Wood (fiddler and dance caller) and Marguerite Wood (pianist and accordion player). In the second photograph, the piano player (seen from the back) is Phil Merrill. The last photo… View item
Still Image

NH/VT squares, 1940s & 1950s

This is a collection of articles from the Hanover (NH)Gazette and the Bradford (VT) United Opinion, reporting on square dances in the area (New Hampshire and Vermont) in the 1940s and early 1950s.… View item
Document

Honest John - 1950

This collection of newspaper articles all focus on the dance "Honest John," a specialty of dancers in the Upper Connecticut River Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont. Comments in italics are… View item
Moving Image

Canadian Four Step

There are many examples of couple dances included in the SDHP collection.Click on this linkto go to a listing.Fall dance of the Canadian Olde Tyme Square Dance Callers' Association, a group formed in… View item
Still Image

Vermont square dancers, 1950s - children

This collection of photographs from the 1950s shows children dancing, mostly at the large square dance festivals held in Northfield or Montpelier, Vermont. View item
Still Image

Callers' Jamboree - NH, 1947

Callers sitting on stage:Gene Gowing, Ralph Page, Hal Brundage, Al Brundage, Ed Durlacher, Lawrence Loy, Orville "Pop" SmithMusicians on stage:Bob Gulyassy, George Gulyassy, Dick Best, Bob McQuillen,… View item
Still Image

Rita and Mal Hayden

Photo of Mal and Rita Hayden dressed in clothing to celebrate the American Bicentennial, 1976 Jim Mayo comments: “He was calling when I first started dancing in 1947 and when I got out of… View item