The Paget-Fredericks Dance Collection contains roughly 2,000 original drawings, paintings, photographs and pieces of memorabilia that date from approximately 1913-1945.

Joseph Rous Paget-Fredericks was an artist, designer, dancer, and children's book author and illustrator based in Berkeley, California. He was born in San Francisco, California on December 22, 1903, although various sources record his birth as 1902, 1903, 1905, and 1909. A family story claims he was born on the eve of the 1906 earthquake and fire. Early records and signatures record his name as J.E. Paget Fredericks. His mother, Constance Paget Jackson, (sometimes recorded as Constance Rous-Marten Paget-Jackson) was born in California to English parents. His father, Arthur Remy Fredericks (sometimes noted as Arthur Remy von Höe[h]nthal Fredericks), was also California-born. Details regarding family history and early personal history are not clear, and embellishments are present among autobiographical notes and news clippings in the Paget-Fredricks papers. His own notes indicate he descended maternally from noble English families (Rous-Marten, of Essex and Paget-Jackson of County Durham), and that his father was descended from a family of Baltic lumber Barons.

2000 items (approximately 2,000 original drawings, paintings and photographs, as well as scrapbooks and other dance memorabilia) and 398 digital objects

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Collection is open for research.