This souvenir card has three bifolded pages inside a soft suede cover, simply embossed on the front lower right hand corner with "1909." On the first page is a lithograph of a lovely young woman in a day coat and large hat, with the subtitle, "ELLIOT N. PHILA." The card commemorates the Senior Assembly of Lafayette College, held at the Paxinosa Inn in Easton, Pa. Inside are listed over 50 Patronesses as well as the dance committee.

Twenty four dances are listed inside, twelve in each half of the program, with room for three additional dances. The music is a mix of very light classics as well as popular tunes of the day, with pieces by Sousa, Straus, Victor Herbert and Berger. By this period even the lanciers has vanished, and the dances simply read, "Two Step, Waltz, Two Step, Waltz, Two Step etc." By 1909, however, these fairly innocuous dance forms did leave themselves open to the possibility of less than acceptable dances like the Turkey Trot, the Texas Tommy or the Grizzly Bear, all of which could be done to generic two step music. (For a description of the Grizzly Bear see MIXED PICKLES' Vintage Dance Timeline - Ragtime.) We can only speculate whether these college seniors were locked in vulgar bunny hugs when the chaperones turned their backs.

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Vintage Dance Cards