Stockton Folk Dance Camp - Lawton Harrins Library

University of the Pacific
Lawton Harris Collection of Folk Dance Materials
(March, 2007)

From the beginning, Folk Dance Camp has focused on the scholarly aspects of dance in addition to the dancing itself. Lawton arranged for a late-morning discussion session at the camp in 1948 “to consider such topics as the proper music and its relationship to our instruction in folk dances, the national characteristics of music, costuming, teaching techniques and trends in the folk dance movement.” After lunch a free period was set aside “to browse in the large collection of books being gathered to assist folk dance teachers.” (From “California Folk Dance Camp” in the June 1948, issue of Let’s Dance.) This collection of books was comprised largely, if not entirely, of books owned by Lawton. The books, plus dance descriptions and other material in Lawton’s collection, were made available to campers in G202, a small room in the Gym, until 1953.

When Lawton died in 1967, he left some 6,000 folk dance records, approximately 4,000 dance descrip-tions and many books and printed material about folk dancing. His wife Sally, gave the entire collection to the Folk Dance Committee, who decided to turn it over to the Special Collections Unit of the University’s library, provided the collection would be:

In 1968, the collection was transferred to the library for curating and housing. Under the University's tutelage, members of the Library Committee and Bev Wilder (F.D.C. Committee liaison) were trained in the necessary library techniques. In cooperation with Folk Dance Camp, the Library bought the equipment needed to play items in the collection.

From 1968 through 1973, Library Committee members did all of the curating and shelving of the collection. In 1973, Bev Wilder took over the curating function and also began preparing all the card file cards. Bev retired from his Folk Dance Camp responsibilities in 1990 and Bruce Mitchell became the Folk Dance Camp Committee liaison to the library.

Through donations from almost 40 retired folk, square, and round dance leaders, estates, Folk Dance Camp and others, the collection has grown to become the largest collection of its kind in the West.

10,000 recordings. These have been converted to cassette tapes. The original records are in storage at the University, but are available if needed. They have not been digitized as of this date.

Over 4,500 records are in the Library (approximately 10,500 record ings). As of this date 3,300 of the records have been digitized. This project should be complete in 2007. There are also 500+ records to be added to the collectio

There are 981 LP records in the collection. These have not been digitized. That project will begin in 2008. There are also another 525 records to be added to this collection.

Approximately 200 cassette tapes are in the library. Starting in 1969, cassette tapes were made with all of the Folk Dance Camp dances on them for each year up to 1998. These Folk Dance Camp cassettestapes have been digitized.

     • CDs and Mini-discs:     Starting in 1992, the Camp dances were either on mini-discs or CDs.

     • VHS tapes:

Starting in 1972 (with the exception of 1975) through 2004, VHS tapes were made of all the dances taught for that year . All of thetapes have been digitized, but are not ready for the library because they have to be chaptered for easier use. This is an ongoing project. Additional VHS tapes are in the library.

Starting in 2005, all of the Folk Dance Camp dances were produced on DVD format.

A complete collection of dance syllabi from Folk Dance Camp starting in 1948 are in the library. They represent well over 2,000 dances. An additional 14,000 miscellaneous dance descriptions are in the collection. This general collection has not been digitized. However, one of the dancers from Camp, Linda Raybern, has donated discs with approximately 1,350 dances descriptions on them.

There are just over 1,000 books in the library, both hard and soft bound. They are now being cataloged. There also several large loose - leaf volumes of costume data.

                    American Square Dancer: 1982 - 85 - incomplete set
                    American Squares: 1963 - 66 - incomplete set.
                    English Dance and Song: 1966 - 70 - incomplete set.
                    English Folk Dancer: 1942 - 56 - incomplete set.
                    Folk Dance Scene (Calif. Fed. South): 1975 - 96 - incomplete set.
                    Let’s Dance (Folk Dance Fed. North): 1944 - 2005 - almost complete
                    Northern Junket (edited by Ralph Page): complete set.
                    Rosin the Bow: 1953 - 57 - incomplete set.
                    Round Dancer: 1971 - 76 - incomplete set.
                    Sets in Order (edited by Bob Osgood): 1949 - 85 - complete set.
                    Sing Out: 1964 - 67 - incomplete set.
                    Tamburitzan: 1960 - 63 - incomplete set.
                    Viltis (edited by Vyts Beliajus): complete set except Nov./Dec. 1994.

The “Lawton Harris Collection of Folk Dance Materials” is housed in the new music/A.V. section of the library right behind the circulation desk located on the western side of floor number two. Next to this section is the facility for listening to music and observing the VHS/DVD materials. Dance descriptions, cassette audio tapes, and CDs may be copied, however we are not allowed to have the VHS tapes or DVDs copied due to agreements made with the instructors at the time of VHS tapes and DVDs were made.

At this point in time, there is limited space in the library for additional materials with the exception of CDs/DVDs that are currently being prepared of both materials in and outside of the collection. However, adjustments will soon be made to house all of the books in the collection at the site. We are still collecting items as they are given to us. New items given to the library will be digitized and added to the collection as mentioned above.

For additional information, contact Bruce Mitchell at (530)888-6586 or dancebruce@aol.com..