This dance program is a bit unusual: it's not for a ball in the usual sense, but for a dance teacher's "reception and exhibition", which in this case means an evening that starts with a bit of social dancing, then breaks for a children's dance recital, then continues on with more social dancing. This was a common mix for dance school recitals; numerous descriptions of similar events were published in the pages of the dance masters' journal The Director in 1897-1898. For example, George Prutting's sixteenth annual exhibition and reception, held on April 22, 1898, in Hartford, Connecticut, started with children's exhibition dances and ended with a social program of sixteen dances, "including the waltz, two step, schottische, lancers, etc." (The Director, Vol. 1, No. 6, May 1898, p. 186). Mrs. Underwood's reception, held on February 15, 1901, actually had three separate dance programs: an initial set of social dances probably performed just by the students, the exhibition or "fancy" dances, and the social dances for "general dancing" at the end of the evening.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A bit of background first:
Washington Hall, located at 204 Main Street in Milford, was in use from at least the middle of the nineteenth century onward. It was described in 1876 by a government safety inspector as follows: "Three-story brick building. Means of egress: very good. Means of escape from fire or accident: stairways at both ends of hall. Outside doors open inwardly." The eleventh edition of Jno. B. Jeffery's Guide and Directory to the Opera Houses, Theatres, Public Halls, Bill Posters, Etc. of the Cities and Towns of America (Chicago, 1889) recorded that it could seat four hundred and fifty and that Milford, at the time, had a population of about 10,000.
Washington Hall served as the temporary home of at least three religious congregations - Baptists in the 1850s and both Congregationalists and Episcopalians in the 1860s - while they built or renovated their own churches. (Adin Ballou, History of the town of Milford, Worcester county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1881. Boston, 1882, pp. 240, 253, 255.) It was also the site of balls from at least the late 1850s, as shown by two surviving broadside advertisements:
The Regular adjourned Wednesday evening party will take place at Washington Hall, Wednesday eve. Feb. 21, as per adjournment. ... Music, Cross' Quadrille Band, J. Bailey Cross, prompter. (1857 broadside)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Twill never do to give it up so! : There will be an assembly at Washington Hall, Friday eve. April 10, 1857. ... Music; Cross' Quadrille Band, assisted by Stephen Conant, of Boston, who will favor the company with violin solos.
Tickets for dancing 50 cents. Commence at 8 precisely. Admission to gallery 10 cents. (another 1857 broadside)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In 1887 it hosted "Wild West" shows:
The Wild West show entertainments which have been held nightly this week in Washington Hall, and which will be continued through next week, are attracting large audiences. The entertainments are free to all and are held for the purpose of advertising Dr. Solomon's medicines which are on sale during the evening. -- The [Milford] Gazette, May 6, 1887.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sadly, as far as I can tell, the original building no longer exists. Its site is currently occupied by a rather dull two-story building which is, or recently was, home to Bethany Community Church.
I was also curious about who Mrs. N. E. Underwood was, so I spent some time tracing her through the state and federal census and birth/marriage/death records. She was born Ellen Eugenie Maynard in Needham, Massachusetts, in 1846. Her family moved to Milford sometime before her eighth birthday, and she grew up there with her parents and three older siblings (two sisters and a brother). She married Daniel P. Underwood, a "stable keeper", in 1872. By the 1880 census, he was a horse dealer and she was a dressmaker. They appear to have had no children. In 1890, at 44, she was widowed.
The Massachusetts state census records after 1865 and the Federal census records of 1890 have been lost, so it's difficult to pin down exactly when she took up dance as a profession, but during the 1900 Federal census she was living with her two older sisters (all three had been widowed by then) and listing herself as a "dancing teacher", albeit one who claimed to have been unemployed for six months. By the 1910 census, she was retired (or at least listed no profession). Her obituary in the Boston Sunday Globe in 1921 noted that she was "for many years Milford's leading dance instructor."
But in 1901, she held this reception. Back to the dance card!
Here are inside and back views of the card with the three dance lists (click to enlarge):
Both the social programs are conventional for the era: a mix of couple dances with one grand march to start things off. The waltz and two-step do not fully dominate; the early program has only one of each, plus a polka, a three-step (similar to the two-step, but in 3/4 and to music with a mazurka or redowa accent), and a schottische. This program may have been just for the students.
The program for the general dancing has two two-steps, four waltzes, one polka, two schottisces, and a caprice (musically similar to a schottische).
It's interesting that in a small New England town in this period that there were neither quadrilles nor country dances on the program.
The exhibition dances are typical as well: adorably-costumed dances for the youngest students, then solos, duets, and group dances for the older ones. Dancing masters composed and published many versions of fancy dances; one cannot assume any specific steps for anything listed. A jockey dance, which also appears on other exhibition programs in this era, might have included clogging or horse-race mime. The Highland fling was enormously popular; Cincinnati dancing master H. C. Nott noted in his 1896 fancy-dance manual that "nearly every teacher" had one of these and provided instructions for his version. He also included a Fairy Dance in mazurka time for a "little Miss" that could also be used for two or more dancers and might have been similar to the dances for "Fairies, Cavalieres, and Butterflies" done by Mrs. Underwood's smalest dancers. The Butterick Publishing Company's Masquerades, Tableaux and Drills (New York c1906) also gave examples of group dances and "drills" (marches) for little children; see, for example, the daisy drill and daisy garland dance starting here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's interesting, in light of this exhibition program, to look back at the Radcliffe students' post-exam celebration in 1897, which was basically a miniaturized version of a typical exhibition: three fancy dances, followed by general dancing. It feels like the students were following the same model for a party that they'd followed as young girls in dance schools.
Comments