Guide to the Scrapbook on Cecil Sharp's English Folk Dance Society School MS.P.028
Processed by Karen Rosen.
Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine
Libraries
(cc) 2001
The UCI Libraries
P.O. Box 19557
University of California, Irvine
Irvine 92623-9557
spcoll@uci.edu
Note
Arts and Humanities--Dance--Dance GeneralArts and Humanities--Music
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine
Libraries
Title: Scrapbook on Cecil Sharp's English Folk Dance Society school
Creator:
Hervey, Dudley, Mrs.
Identifier/Call Number: MS.P.028
Physical Description:
0.2 Linear Feet
(1 box)
Date (inclusive): 1920-1931
Abstract: This collection comprises a scrapbook
of correspondence, photographs, clippings, brochures, and programs relating to Cecil Sharp's
English Folk Dance Society school at Aldeburgh, England. The scrapbook was kept by Mrs.
Dudley Hervey.
Language of Material:
English .
Collection is open for research.
Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by
the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish,
please contact the Head of Special Collections and University Archives.
Scrapbook on Cecil Sharp's English Folk Dance Society School. MS-P28. Special Collections
and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.
For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information
about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder
descriptions, and box/folder locations.
Acquired, 1998.
Processed by Karen Rosen, 2001.
Mrs. Dudley Hervey was the headmistress of the Belstead House School in Aldeburgh, England,
where the English Folk Dance Society school was held beginning in 1922. Hervey kept a
scrapbook related to Cecil Sharp, the musicologist, and founder of the English Folk Dance
Society.
Sharp is credited with collecting and reviving traditional folk songs and dances from the
English countryside and reinstating them into the cultural life of the nation. He was born
in London on November 22, 1859, and was educated at Uppingham School and Cambridge
University. After a brief career in law, including a stint as associate to the chief justice
of South Australia in 1889, he changed his career from law to music. He became assistant
organist of Adelaide and co-director of the Adelaide College of Music in South Australia. In
1892 he returned to England. He was master at Ludgrove Preparatory School from 1893 to 1910
and principal of the Hamstead Conservatoire of Music from 1896 to 1905.
Sharp was first attracted to folk dancing when he saw the Morris Dancers in Headington,
Oxford in 1899. He then began his life-long work to revive and preserve traditional folk
music and dance. Sharp published several books of folk dance collections which included
Morris dances, country dances, and sword dances of Northern England. He also published
collections of native English folk songs. In 1911 he founded the English Folk Dance Society
and initiated the teaching of folk song and dance in English schools. The school sessions
held at Aldeburgh were to be the last directed by Sharp before his death. He was also a
collector of folk songs and dances of America. Between 1916 and 1918 he visited the
Appalachian Mountains to study American folk songs of English origin.
Cecil Sharp died in Hampstead, England on June 23, 1924. In 1930, Cecil Sharp House was
established in London as a center for the preservation of folk song and dance, and to serve
as the headquarters of the English Folk Dance Society.
For further biographical information, see Maud Karpeles,
Cecil Sharp:
his life and work
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967).
Collection Scope and Content Summary
This collection comprises a scrapbook of correspondence, photographs, clippings, brochures,
and programs relating to Cecil Sharp's English Folk Dance Society school at Aldeburgh,
England. The scrapbook was kept by Mrs. Dudley Hervey.
The scrapbook contains student and staff sign-in rosters for Easter and Summer courses and
demonstrations. 44 photographs depict folk dancing at Aldeburgh School, as well as Sharp and
other staff members. Newspaper clippings, including a brief obituary, relate to Cecil Sharp.
An undated clipping written after Sharp's death details the importance of his work reviving
the traditions of English folk song and dance. Performance programs and brochures detail
instruction schedules and demonstrations at the Aldeburgh School. Hervey's English Folk
Dance Society membership cards for 1922 and 1923 are mounted on the inside front of the
scrapbook.
11 signed letters written by Sharp to Hervey relate to dance matters at the school. A
letter from Joan Sharp thanks Hervey for her well wishes during one of Sharp's illnesses. A
typed letter signed by Maud Karpeles, honorary secretary of the English Folk Dance Society
from 1922 to 1929, mentions Sharp's illness, and another from Karpeles, written in 1926,
refers to the school. A typewritten proof letter on Belstead House School letterhead dated
July 7th, 1924 details a meeting to be held relating to the English Folk Dance Society.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Dancers.
Dance teachers.
Dance cards
Folk dancing, English
Photographic prints
Country dance -- England
Dance -- Archives
Scrapbooks
Dance schools -- England
English Folk Dance Society -- Archives
Sharp, Cecil James
box 1, folder 1
Correspondence 1921-1926
box 1, folder 2
English Folk Dance Society materials, 1924-1931
box 1, folder 2
Clipping on the death of Cecil Sharp, undated
box 1, folder 2
box 1, folder 2
Programs and broadsides, 1924-1931
box 1, folder 3
Scrapbook 1922-1931