Music & Dance
- Special CollectionsThe Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend celebrates the legacy of New Hampshire dance caller Ralph Page (1903-1985) with an annual 3 day festival of New England music and dance. It was established in January 1988 as a branch of the New England Folk…
- 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 CollectionsGerda Peterich (1906-1974) came to New Hampshire in 1959 and did an architectural survey and photographic studies of Manchester. She was a lecturer in Art History and Director of the Photographic Archives at Syracuse University from 1964 to 1968.…
- Special CollectionsRober Manton, noted composer of choral, piano, and orchestral works, was born in Dorchester, MA in 1894. He studied music at Harvard University under W.C. Heilman, Dr. A.T. Davison and Dr. E.B. Hill and with Harris S. Shaw in piano and organ,…
- Special CollectionsEdward Alexander MacDowell (1860-1908) was the first American composer to achieve international recognition. The Edward MacDowell Papers primarily contains musical works by MacDowell in both manuscript and printed form. However, the collection also…
- 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 CollectionsShaker of Enfield, N.H., musician, and poet. Composer of the popular Shaker song "Millenial Praise". Music book kept by James Russell of Enfield, N.H. The first 56 pages of the book contain a 12 section lesson on the principles of music. Pages 58-145 contain hymns and poems Russell wrote for the…
- Special CollectionsWalter Kittredge was born in Merrimack, New Hampshire. He was a self-taught musician who wrote over 500 songs throughout his career. His most famous song was "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground," which was sung by both sides during the Civil War. From Reeds Ferry, N.H. Walter Kittredge writes a letter…
- 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 CollectionsLois Greene Stone is an American writer and poet. The Lois Greene Stone collection consists of 139 individual pieces of sheet music, 14 sheet music books, 10 playbills and 2 programs, and includes popular songs, songs from Broadway musicals and…
- 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 CollectionsThe Sacred Dance Guild was founded in 1958 and incorporated in 1965 as an international, interfaith, interdenominational non-profit organization. It publishes the Sacred Dance Guild Journal three times a year and sponsors a National Festival held in…
- Special CollectionsDorothy Prescott Ruth Cooke (1921-1988) was born in Everett, MA. Her respect for jazz musicians manifested itself in 1978 when she formed the New Hampshire Traditional Library of Jazz (NHLTJ). In 1979, Prescott collaborated with the UNH music…
- 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…
- Special CollectionsAmy Marcy Cheney (1867-1944) was born in Henniker, New Hampshire. In 1883, at age sixteen, she made her professional debut as a pianist and later a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. After her marriage in 1885, to Henry Harris Aubrey Beach,…
