Identifier
AFC 1995/015 (local)

Repository
Library of Congress / Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center

Date
1946 - 2002 (Inclusive dates)

Summary
The collection includes manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings, and videotapes documenting the activities of a traditional American square and contra dance group, the Fun Finders, from Colorado Springs, Colorado from 1946 to 2002. Fun Finders was organized as an exhibition square-dance group by W. Dean Edwards, who directed the group from the 1940s through the 1980s with his wife Peggy Edwards. Sound and videorecordings of square-dance calling and instructional videos for square and contra dancing are included.

Scope and Content Note

Scope and Content

The collection includes manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings, and videotapes which document the activities from 1946 to 2002 of a traditional American square and contra dance group, the Fun Finders, from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Fun Finders was organized as an exhibition square dance group by W. Dean Edwards, who directed the group from the 1940s through the 1980s with his wife Peggy Edwards. Sound and video recordings of square dance calling and instructional videos for square and contra dancing are included

First organized by W. Dean Edwards in the late 1940s as an exhibition square dance group, the Fun Finders, and its orchestra, the Hoedown-Aires, quickly grew and provided a venue for hundreds of recreational folk dancers in the Colorado Springs community. This collection documents Fun Finders callers and members, as well as recreational dances from the early 1940s and the expansion of the group’s activities beginning in the mid 1950s. Notable dances and activities are organized by event, including participation in choreographing and calling the square dance scenes for the 1978 film, Comes a Horseman (starring Jane Fonda, James Caan, and Jason Robards); dance programming at the Colorado Deaf and Blind School; exhibition dance programming; and a retrospective exhibit of the Fun Finders at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum in 2001

Audio recordings in the collection include eight programs from the Fun Finders Square Dance television show, which aired for three years on the local CBS and NBC affiliated television stations KKTV and KRDO respectively during the 1950s; five duplicate recordings used in the Fun Finders Instructional and Historical Videos; and thirteen commercial recordings of square dance and contra music

Graphic images in the collection include photographic images from all of the recreational, instructional, and special programming events, including photo images of dance partners and callers. Events #34 and #44, which would have been found in folders 41 and 53, were not submitted with the collection

Video recordings include one 6-video set, Fun Finders Instructional and Historical Videos, produced by Dean and his wife Peggy Edwards in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a collaboration between the Fun Finders and the Colorado Springs 11th School District. Also included are recordings of square dance events in Bancroft and Acacia Park in the late 1980s and 7-Up promotional commercials, from the 1960s in Colorado Springs, one of which features square dancing with W. Dean Edwards as the caller

Administrative/Biographical History Element

Biographical Notes

W. Dean Edwards was born in La Junta, Colorado, in 1927. He was first introduced to square dancing in 1939 through Acacia Park community dances in Colorado Springs, Colorado. From 1946 to 1947, Edwards was a member of the Pikes Peak Square Dancers, an exhibition dance group organized by Bob Cook. He began calling his first square dances in the late 1940s and went on to win the Colorado State Champion Square Dance caller contest each year from 1951-1955. In the late 1940s, he began organizing and directing the activities of the traditional square dance group, the Fun Finders, which he and his wife Peggy headed for more than forty years

System of Arrangement

Arrangement

Organized by format into the following series: I. Manuscripts, II. Sound Recordings, III. Graphic Images and IV. Moving Images

Additionally, photocopies of oversize items are cross-referenced to originals housed in Oversize Box 10

Conditions Governing Access

Access and Restrictions

Sound cassettes and videocassettes are stored in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS). Duplication of collection materials may be governed by copyright and other restrictions. The collection is open for research. To request materials, please contact the Folklife Reading Room at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact

Custodial History

Custodial History

W. Dean Edwards donated the Fun Finders Instructional and Historical Videos set of six videos to the American Folklife Center in 1993 to update versions of cassettes donated in 1992. In 2004, the Folklife Center received additional materials from the donor, including the bulk of the manuscripts and graphic images in the collection

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Acquisition

This collection was donated by W. Dean Edwards in 1992. Additional materials were added in 2004

General Note

Processing History

The collection was processed by Judy Ng in 2007. Valda Morris revised and encoded the collection finding aid in EAD format in September 2013

Related Archival Materials

Related Material

The Dean and Peg Edwards collection which provides additional serials, audio and visual documentation of the Fun Finders Square Dancing is housed at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. An online collection inventory is available from the Online Archive of Colorado Pioneers Springs Museum: http://www.cspm.org/finding-aidsinventories/dean-and-peg-edwards-collection/

Extent
2618 (items.)
10 (boxes.)
71 (folders.)
25 (sound cassettes : analog.)
4 (sound tape reels : analog, 3 3/4 ips ; 7 in.)
19 (videocassettes (VHS) : sound, color ; 1/2 in.)
1 (videocassette (U-Matic).)
1128 (photographs (44 folders, photographic prints,)

Language
Dialects)

Other Subject Headings
Contra dance (Local)
Folk dance music--United States (Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH))
Square dance music--United States (Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH))
Square dancing--Colorado (Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH))
Square dancing--Study and teaching (Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH))
Colorado Springs (Colo.)--Social life and customs (Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH))
Photographs (Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT))
Sound recordings (Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT))
Videocassettes (Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT))

Preferred Citation
W. Dean Edwards Collection (AFC 1995/015), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress