Finding aid for the Mary Wood Hinman collection of English folk songs 0035

Lindsay Anderson
USC Libraries Special Collections
2017 March
Doheny Memorial Library 206
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, California 90089-0189
specol@usc.edu


Language of Material: English
Contributing Institution: USC Libraries Special Collections
Title: Mary Wood Hinman collection of English folk songs
creator: Hinman, Mary Wood
Identifier/Call Number: 0035
Identifier/Call Number: 38
Physical Description: 0.84 Linear Feet 2 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1823-1917
Abstract: The Mary Wood Hinman Collection consists of teaching materials for folk dancing, piano forte and some violin music books, programs for plays, photographs, sheet music, newspaper clippings as well as presidential and American history related items that have been collected by Mary Wood Hinman. The items document Hinman's long career as a folk dance teacher, choreographer, musician, lyricist and more. Mary Wood Hinman is regarded as an American scholar who helped to lead in the expansion and awareness of folk dancing in the United States.

Biographical / Historical

Mary Wood Hinman was born on February 14, 1878 in the state of Ohio. She began her career as a teacher to the local neighborhood children as a teenager as a way to help her family through financial distress. She later traveled to Europe where she had the opportunity to study gymnastics and folk dancing. Hinman eventually came back to America and settled in Chicago, Illinois where she developed a teacher-training school that prepared women to teach folk dances in parks, schools and settlement houses. In 1898, she worked with Jane Addams and her colleagues at Hull House where she taught folk dancing to immigrants, and in 1905 she ventured into business when she opened the Hinman School of Folk Dancing. From around 1906 to 1919, Hinman worked with philosopher, psychologist and education reformer John Dewey where they developed dancing and gymnastics programs as part of the kindergarten through high school curriculum for what is now the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. It was at the University of Chicago where Hinman also took part in choreographing and writing songs for plays and jigs, such as "The Pseudo-Suffragettes", "The Pursuit of Portia", and "The Wooing of Nan" for the English Language and Literature Department. She later moved from Illinois to New York where she helped to establish the Folk Festival Council of New York in 1930 and taught as well as developed courses at a university that is now known as The New School in Manhattan around 1932. Mary Wood Hinman retired from her teaching career in 1938 and relocated once more to Los Angeles, California where she lived until she passed away on July 4, 1952.

Scope and Contents

The Mary Wood Hinman Collection consists of teaching materials for folk dancing, piano forte and some violin music books, programs for plays, photographs, sheet music, newspaper clippings as well as presidential and American history related items that have been collected by Mary Wood Hinman. The collection also contains items involving plays that Hinman took part in mainly as a choreographer, such as "The Pseudo-Suffragettes", "The Pursuit of Portia" and "The Wooing of Nan", as well as original songs that she possibly wrote lyrics for, such as "My Man John" and "The Keeper".

Conditions Governing Access

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Preferred Citation

[Box/folder no. or item name], Mary Wood Hinman collection of English folk songs, Collection no. 0035, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Folk dancing -- Archival resources
Music -- Study and teaching -- Archival resources
Piano-harp music -- Archival resources
Clippings
Plays (performed works)
Sheet music
Hinman, Mary Wood -- Archives

Box 1, Folder 1

The Bassingham Play 1823

Scope and Contents

Item is a five-page script and was written by an unnamed writer.
Box 1, Folder 2

La Cendrillon, the Celebrated Eighth Set of French Quadrilles. Composed and Arranged for the PIano Forte circa 1835

Scope and Contents

Item is a music book composed by the director of the Orechetra of the Nobilities Balls, P. Musard and had been performed by Messers. Collinet, Michau and Musard. Item had been dedicated to the Countess of Sefton and was also printed and sold in London by Chappell & Co. Music. Song titles include "Mrs. Mitchell", "Mrs. Broadhead", "Mrs. Seymour", "Countess of Sefton", and "La Cendrillon".
Box 1, Folder 3

The Welcome Guest: A Collection of Modern Pinao-Forte Music 1863

Physical Description: Item shows visible signs of water damage.

Scope and Contents

Item is a music book containing a repertoire of pieces for home amusement, such as rondos, nocturnes, marches, watlzes, polkas, quadrilles and more. Item was also published in Boston by Henry Toleman & and Co.
Box 1, Folder 4

Contra-dance Album for Piano and 1st Violin 1880

Scope and Contents

Items are duet music books for the piano and for the 1st violin which features thirty short songs. Item had also been copyrighted by Jean White.
Box 1, Folder 5

Three Dances from Henry VIII 1892

Scope and Contents

Item is a pianoforte music book composed by Edward German with a dedication to Henry Irving. Item was copyrighted in London by Novello, Ewer and Co. and includes three songs: "Morris Dance", "Shepherds' Dance" and "Torch Dance".
Box 1, Folder 7

Six Songs 1897

Scope and Contents

Item is a music book featuring six songs, "Have You Got a Brook in Your Little Heart?", "Summer Shower", "A Train Went Through a Burial Gate", "The Lovers", "Poor Little Heart" and "I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed", in which the titles were named after poems by Emily Dickinson and the music had been composed by Clarence Dickinson. Item was published and copyrighted in Chicago by Samuel Merwin and Company.
Box 1, Folder 6

Seven Songs from Tilfredshaden 1892, 1902

Scope and Contents

Item is a music book featuring compositions composed by Holway Atkinson. Some song titles include "Dear Gracious Hand", "The Cover's Litany", "Summer and Winter", "The Inn of the Silver Moon" and more. Item was published in Chicago by Frank K. Root & Co. Attatched to the book are two extra songs for the piano, "Memories" and "With a Flower", that were composed by Frank K. Atkinson Jr. and had been published by E.T Root & Sons in Chicago. There's also a hand-written composition by an unnamed composer titled "Andante con Expressione".
Box 1, Folder 8-9

[The Misses Dorothy, Rosalind and Cynthia Fuller materials] 1908, 1915

Scope and Contents

Materials contain seven song books, a program for a recital of folk songs by the Misses Dorothy, Rosalind and Cynthia Fuller in Dorset, England on June 12, 1913 and a Christmas card from Dorothy, Rosalind, Cynthia and Walter Fuller in 1913. The song books have only vocal parts and comes with compositions collected and arranged by Cecil J. Sharp copyrighted in 1908 by Novello and Company Limited as well as two or four extra folk song compositions - "Mowing the Barley", "The Wraggle-Taggle Gypsies, O!", "My Man John" and "O No, John!" - by an unnamed composer copyrighted in 1915 by The H.W. Gray Co.
Box 1, Folder 10

[Images] 1908, undated

Scope and Contents

File contains three black and white images: "English May Pole Dance" from 1909, "The 'Horo' Remains the Bulgarian National Dance", which is undated, and an untitled and undated printed image, which features three men and one woman dancing in a field.
Box 1, Folder 11

Cecil Sharp songs 1908, 1909

Scope and Contents

Item is a music book which contains two music books, "Folks Songs of England" 1908 and "Folk Songs (Various)" 1909, both collected and arranged by Cecil J. Sharp and copyrighted by Novello and Company, Limited.
Box 1, Folder 12

Music and Notation 1909-1912

Scope and Contents

Folder contains ten separate pieces of sheet music for Music and Notation: "The Butterfly", "Newcastle", "Mage on a Cree", "Hey, boys, up we go", "The Old Mole", "The Merry Conceit", "Confess", "If All the World Were Paper", "Sweet Kate" and "Row well, ye Mariners". All were collected and arranged by Cecil J. Sharp and had been copyrighted in London by Novello & Company, Limited.
Box 1, Folder 13

The Pseudo-Suffragettes 1910

Scope and Contents

Item is a souvenir score for the college comic opera, "The Pseudo-Suffragettes", which had been produced by The Blackfriars of the University of Chicago. Most of the pages had been torn out but the item also contains newspaper clippings, autographs and photographs from some of the members of the cast and crew as well as the program for the opera which mentions Hinman as the choreographer for the special dances.
Box 1, Folder 14

Country Dance Tunes, Set III 1911

Scope and Contents

Item is a music book for piano forte with pieces composed and arranged by Cecil J. Sharp and copyrighted in London by Novello & Co., Ltd.
Box 1, Folder 15

The Pursuit of Portia 1912

Scope and Contents

Item is a souvenir score for the college comic opera, "The Pursuit of Portia", which had been produced by The Blackfriars of the Univeristy of Chicago. Item also includes newspaper clippings, telegrams, autographs from some of the members of the cast and crew and the program for the opera which lists Hinman as the choreographer for the special dances.
Box 2, Folder 1

Shakespeare Tercentennial Celebration programs 1916 February 25

Scope and Contents

Folder contains two copies of the program for the Shakspere Tercentennial Celebration by the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. The celebration illustrated the different types of drama before Shakspere, such as songs, plays and jigs. Item also briefly mentions "The Wooing of Nan".
Box 2, Folder 2

"The Wooing of Nan" materials 1916-1917

Scope and Contents

Folder contains materials related to "The Wooing of Nan", which was presented by the University of Chicago's Department of the English Language and Literature. Items include a program featuring the play for the Chicago Women's Club Art and Literature Department, two photos of the cast in which one of them had been cut out from an unknown reading material, two newspaper clippings, two programs titled "Four Early Plays" in which "The Wooing of Nan" is listed as one of the featured plays, three copies of the rough drafts of the script in which two of them are typed and one of them is handwritten by an unnamed writer and handwritten sheet music written by an unnamed composer. Hinman took part in producing the play.
Box 2, Folder 3

The Will Rossiter Original Dance Calls 1926

Scope and Contents

Item is a piano music book which contains songs for square dances and was published by The Chicago Publisher in Chicago, Illinos.
Box 2, Folder 4

"The Dance of the May" article 1927

Scope and Contents

Item is an article written by Hinman for the Pictorial Review Company magazine which features the history of May-pole dancing as well as instructions on how it is danced.
Box 2, Folder 5

A Group of Danish Folk Songs and Singing Games undated

Scope and Contents

Item is a music book which features twenty-two English folk dancing songs with instructions on how to do the dance accompanied with each song. Music was arranged by Helene Fish with directions written by Dorothy S. Ainsworth, Frances C. McInnes and Amy Lindner.
Box 2, Folder 6

A Collection of Popular Dances for the Piano-Forte, Violin, &c. undated

Scope and Contents

Item is a music book which had been printed and sold by William Boag in London.
Box 2, Folder 7

Lyrics undated

Scope and Contents

Folder contains four typed rough drafts of lyrics titled "My Man John", "The Keeper", "O No John" and "As I Walked Through the Meadows". All were written by an unnamed writer.
Box 2, Folder 8

Marion I. Colby letter undated

Scope and Contents

Item is a handwritten thank-you letter by a Marion I. Colby written in an unknown year on August 18th.
Box 2, Folder 9

Monuments of Washington's Patriotism 1841

Physical Description: Item shows visible signs of water damage.

Scope and Contents

Item is a facsimile of George Washington's public accounts kept during the Revolutionary War which had been published by the Trustees of Washington's Manual Labor School and Male Orphan Asylum. Item had also been printed by an M. Ludwig in New York and had also been formerly owned by an S.S Smith from Cincinnati, Ohio in which he signed it on October 4th, 1842.
Box 2, Folder 10

Abraham Lincoln memorabilia 1872, 1910, undated

Scope and Contents

Folder contains three items: a page torn out of a May 29th, 1910 issue of an unknown reading material printed in Chicago, Illinois titled "Address of Abraham Lincoln at the Dedication of Gettysburg Cemetery, the 19th of November, 1863", a small poster which features a photograph of Abraham Lincoln and a short quote from his Second Inaugural Address and a book titled "Lincoln's Autobiography" which is a facsimile featuring Lincoln's early history that had been published by a Jesse W. Fell in Normal, Illinois around the year 1872.
Box 2, Folder 11

Pamphlets 1888-1889

Scope and Contents

Folder contains two pamphlets titled "The Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence", which had been published on March 10th, 1888, and "Farewell Address and Other Papers by Geo. Washington" which had been published on January 19th, 1889. Both items were also published by John B. Alden.
Box 2, Folder 12

Newspaper clippings 1894 February 12, undated

Scope and Contents

Folder contains three newspaper clippings: "Birth, Age and Death of Each Individual Signer to the Declaration of Independence" which had been written by an unnamed journalist, in an unknown year and for an unknown newspaper, "His Text the Nation" which had been written by an unnamed journalist, in an unknown year and for an unknown newspaper and "Lincoln as a Model" which had been written by an unknown journalist in a February 12th, 1894 edition of The Daily Inter Ocean newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois.
Box 2, Folder 13

Declaration of Independence copy undated

Scope and Contents

Item is a copy of the Declaration of Independence which was from The Chicago News Record newspaper as a gift to its readers.