Dance Cards

Small Halloween dance card with yellow ribbon featuring black cat wearing red bow drawn in ink, and slots for 13 names.
(RMW Scrapbook, Object 26-03-01)

Although the use of dance cards dates back to the 18th century, their popularity peaked in Austria during the 19th century, where they were a prominent feature of large, formal balls held during the period leading up to the Christian observance of Lent. These dance cards traditionally took on a three-dimensional form representing the theme of the dance or the organization sponsoring the event. These ornate objects would be accompanied by a pencil and a small booklet in which the female guest could write the names of her dance partners. Modern versions of the dance card, such as the ones in Ruth Mitchell Wunderly's scrapbook, do not have a keepsake associated with them. Rather, they themselves are the keepsake.

The dance cards in the Ruth Mitchell Wunderly collection range from simple sheets of cardstock upon which Ruth has inscribed the names of her dance partners, to multi-page booklets containing the name and date of the event. These larger dance cards double as programs for the event, indicating the name of each song which was to be played, the members of the organization committee as well as any special guests. A common feature linking all five dance cards in this collection is that they all have, or had, writing instruments attached to them by way of a tassel, as can be seen in Dance Card 21-06-01. They are also all quite small, which meant that they would be easily carried during the dance.

Dance cards are quite commonly found in American scrapbooks from the beginning of the 20th century, and the Simmons College Archives holds many similar scrapbooks which contain dance cards.¹

Dance Cards

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