Chicago dance and social event ticket collection, 1901-1921

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Summary

Title:
Chicago dance and social event ticket collection
Dates:
1901-1921
Abstract:
Collection of early 20th century advertising cards for dances and social events in the Chicago area.
Extent:
0.42 Linear Feet (1 document box)
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[Identification of Item], Chicago dance and social event ticket collection, PA Mss 244. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains 383 cards advertising dances, balls, picnics, and outings held by a wide range of Chicago-area benevolent societies, unions, fraternal organizations, and social, political, athletic, or literary clubs between 1901 and 1921.

Biographical / historical:

Advertising cards are artifacts of what the Chicago Historical Society's The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago describes as an "explosion of popular culture" experienced by Chicagoans in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Lewis A. Erenberg, professor emeritus of history at Loyola University Chicago, outlines in "Entertaining Chicagoans" how Chicago's amusements such as movies, music, vaudeville, cabarets, and dance halls "redefined success to include pleasure and consumption, and as mixed-sex institutions they also created new ways for men and women to court, establishing greater equality for women in leisure activities." While dances were seen as a socially acceptable and safe place for young men and women to mingle, "African Americans were kept outside the influence of assimilation that immigrants enjoyed. Segregated from white amusements, black Chicagoans pioneered their own [spaces and movements]." Elevating "Chicago [as] America's jazz capital during the twenties."

Each card offers insights about the social life of a particular group or neighborhood, and collectively they document popular tastes in music and entertainment, as well as the history of job printing in Chicago.

(Adapted from seller's description.)

Acquisition information:
Purchase, August 2022.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Rebecca Vasquez, March 2025.
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-03-17 09:21:15 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the collection and physical objects belong to the Regents of the University of California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at the UCSB Library. All applicable literary rights, including copyright to the collection and physical objects, are protected under Chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code and are retained by the creator and the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns.

All requests to reproduce, quote from, or otherwise reuse collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB at special@library.ucsb.edu. Consent is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or their assigns for permission to publish where the UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of Item], Chicago dance and social event ticket collection, PA Mss 244. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Location of this collection:
UC Santa Barbara Library
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
Contact:
(805) 893-3062
special@library.ucsb.edu
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