New Hampshire Library of Traditional Music & Dance
The NH Library of Traditional Music and Dance is designed to serve the research needs of historians, folklorists, musicians, callers, and dancers alike. Created in 1992 to consolidate and improve access to unique music collections maintained by the University of New Hampshire Milne Special Collections department, the library consists of materials generated both by individuals and organizations. Its holdings include books, periodicals, printed music, recordings, photographs, and archival materials pertaining to traditional music and dance in the United States and elsewhere, with a strong focus on New England traditions.
Digital Collections
External Sites
- Special Collections[bioghist abstract] The collection consists of class projects undertaken by participants in American Folklife courses taught in the English Department, primarily by Professor Burt Feintuch. The projects take the form of investigations of local persons…
- Special CollectionsThe Dance Gypsy, a monthly dance newsletter and calendar “for dancers with wanderlust” edited by Tom and Val Medve in Essex Junction, Vermont, started publication in 1990. Direct forerunners were the Vermont Folk Arts Network (1983-1987) and Patchwork…
- Special CollectionsGene Gowing was born in Dublin, NH on March 19, 1896. He was the head of Gene Gowing's Folkways, a society for the promotion and teaching of English and American folk dances, and he frequently worked with fellow dance enthusiast, Ralph Page. Gowing…
- Special CollectionsThe Country Dance Society was incorporated as an educational, non-profit organization in 1940. It is the successor of the U.S. Branch of the EFDS. CDS later reincorporated as what is now known as the Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS). Through its…
- Special CollectionsGloria Berchielli was a contra dancer, and was particularly involved with programs at Pinewoods Camp and weekends at Hudson Guild Farm. The Gloria Berchielli collection contains photographs of various dance events from May 1952 until 1986. The…
- Special CollectionsResident of Sharon, New Hampshire This 1847 dance caller’s 40 page manuscript book contains many well-known old dances, including Portland Fancy, Fishers Hornpipe, Tom and Jerry, Chorus Jig, and Hull’s Victory.
- Special CollectionsTed Sannella (1928-1995) was a square and contra dance caller from Boston, later moving to Maine. Ted began teaching New England dancing as a professional caller in 1946. He was the author of Balance and Swing (1982), and Swing the Next (1996). Ted…
- Special CollectionsDudley Laufman (b. 1930) is a folk dance caller, band leader, musician, composer, author, and poet from Canterbury, NH. He was heavily influenced by the late caller Ralph Page, and was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship Award in 2009. Without…
