Shall We Dance?

IN THE ERA BEFORE COEDUCATION, SOCIAL LIFE AT DARTMOUTH centered around proms and the annual Winter Carnival ball. From the late 19th century through the first decades of the 20th, Dartmouth's fraternities and dance committees practiced the fine European and American etiquette of presenting dance cards to guests and hosts. Dance cards, in the form of small festive booklets, listed the order of dances—a dozen or two, from quadrilles to waltzes—and provided space to write in the name of a different partner for each dance. The most proper dance cards included slender pencils, attached by ribbons or tassled cords, to facilitate the pleasant task. And when the ball was over, dance cards preserved the afterglow. Tucked into scrapbooks beside programs of the athletic, musical and theatrical events that rounded out prom weeks and Winter Carnival, dance cards remain elegant mementos of times more formal than our own.

a) The Winter Carnival program from 1929 welcomed each "Queen of the Snow" with a key reminder: "You must have warm clothes!" b) The cover of the 1894 senior prom dance card featured John Milton's poetry: "Come, knit hands, and beat the ground in a light fantastic round." c) Dr. Seuss, a.k.a. Ted Geisel '25, drew cartoons for the 1932 Winter Carnival program booklet. d) The 1920 dance card of Ellis Briggs '21. e) Leather covers of dance cards doubled as wallets. f) The DOC carved its 1913 Winter Carnival dance cards out of wood. g) Dance cards for Kappa Kappa Kappa's 1907 annual promenade paired the fraternity's logo with an image of romance. h) Originating in 1899, the junior prom had become a major social event by 1901. i) Dance cards for the class of 1914's junior prom included space to record "Memories of this Dance."