Dayton, Ohio

Archive of the Miami Valley Folk Dancers

Welcome to the Archive of the Miami Valley Folk Dancers.
This site captures the digital versions of various historical records and artifacts of the Miami Valley Folk Dancers in Dayton, Ohio. These records are available to you to read, to conduct research, to learn from.

Click here to access all the files.

Notes about the Archive of MVFD:

Not all the records in the archive are available digitally. Paper records continue to be scanned and entered into the digital archive.
All sorted paper records from 1952 through 2004 have been scanned in.
A few paper records after 2004 have been scanned in.
Items still to be digitized:
- Club records from 2005 to present
- Various decorations
- Grace Wolff's papers (I'm actually working on Grace's papers!)
- Miscellaneous odd sized and unsorted items
- Club photo albums
- Loose dance instructions
- Video recordings

Additional Archival Material:
Some materials and consolidated information have been made available elsewhere on this website. These are:

Yearly Honor Roll Dancers
Dance Instructions - instructions for a few dances have been digitized
MVFD Syllabus Collection - the Syllabus Collection is available for purchase. These pages provide an overview of the collection, and a full list of its contents.
MVFD Syllabus Collection Online - permission is needed to access this section
Teaching Lists and Programs - from 2004 to present. Includes some metrics. For earlier lists, look through the digital archive using keywords "teaching" and "program".
Photos - there is much work to do yet with photos, but here are a few
- A few photo albums
- Directories of raw photos
Workshops - a list of workshops sponsored by the club
Timeline - a timeline of club events
Dance Listings - listings of the club's recordings
Recordings - all the club's recordings - permission is needed to access this section

Searching the archive:

Searching across all files - There is currently no mechanism to search all files for keywords within the files.
Searching within a file - Although all files have been OCRed, the quality of the OCR depends on the quality of the text on the original document. So searching text within a given file, although possible, is not likely to find all the instances of a given keyword. Scanning through the file with your eye will be your best resource to find your keyword. Files that were generated from the original digital file should give excellent search results. These files are most likely to be after 1999, but are not marked at this time.

Finding Aids:

Files have been named consistently with a description of the contents of the file. This allows you to search through the directory on a keyword. Examples:
- To find all newsletters, search the directory for files that include newsletter in the name.
- To find all records of dances taught, search the directory for files that include teaching in the name.
- To find all minutes from a given year, search the directory for files that include the year and minutes in the name.
- Keywords for file name searches:
  - annual meeting
  - financial statement
  - honor
  - menu
  - minutes
  - newsletter
  - teaching
  - treasurers report
  - tri-city
  - workshop
  - also see the acronym list
- Common Acronyms used in file names in the MVFD Archive
  - ADC American Dance Circle
  - DDN Dayton Daily News
  - DIFI Dayton International Festival, Inc., aka A World A'Fair
  - LSF Lloyd Shaw Foundation
  - MSP Michael Solomon Pavilion
  - MSSC Michael Solomon Support Committee
  - MVDC Miami Valley Dance Council
  - MVDN Miami Valley Dance News
  - MVFD Miami Valley Folk Dancers
  - NFF National Folk Festival
  - NFO National Folk Organization
  - WSU Wright State University
  - YSN Yellow Springs News
Additional finding aids will be listed here as they are created.

FAQs about Archives:

Why keep an Archive?
The archive is the club's memory. Any one member cannot remember every event that was held, every decision that was made over time. It provides evidence of what has come before. Without an archive we lack a full understanding of what forces have shaped the club. An individual with no memory is dysfunctional. An organization that lacks a sense of itself over time is equally handicapped. Most obviously this handicap manifests itself as a lack of vision. Without a full picture of the organization and how it has changed, officers and members cannot deal with underlying causes of systemic problems. An archive can also be of practical, everyday use. It gives a factual, evidential, legal foundation to the group and to the members of the group. So when Sgt. Joe Friday asks you: "Where were you at 9 p.m. on the night of July 14, 1983?" you can say "I was folk dancing." Or when the City tries to condemn the Pavillion, you can prove that numerous people have benefited from its use as a dance hall.

What is an Archive?
An archive is a repository for records of historical value. It is similar to a library and museum, as all three institutions organize and provide access to information. However, they differ in that:

Libraries focus on published information like books and periodicals
Museums focus on artifacts, or physical objects
Archives focus on unpublished original records

What is a Record?
A record refers to recorded information in any medium, which provides evidence of the activities of an individual, organization, or institution. A record can be

A physical textual document like a letter
A visual document like a photograph
An audio document like a tape recording
A digital document like an email

What is an Archivist?
An archivist is like a cross between a librarian and a historian.

They help patrons find information and use collections.
They organize and provide descriptions of the records in the archives.
They conduct a variety of activities to preserve the material in collections.

What is a fond?
Archival collections are referred to as fonds. This is a french term meaning the entire body of records of one person, organization, or institution. A fond may be subdivided into a series. A series refers to a group of similar records which were created, received, or used in the same activity. Example: All of the records of the Treasurer of the MVFD fond could be considered a single series.

What is a finding aid?
A finding aid is a document that describes the contents of a fonds. They are used to find information within an archival collection. A finding aid:

Gives historical information on a single collection
Indicates the types of materials found in a fonds
Indicates how much material is in a fonds
Gives information on how to retrieve material from a collection

MVFD Pages: [Home] [General Schedule] [Info Sheet] [Calendar]
Other pages: [Hyll Home Page] [Dayton Dance Groups] [Directions to MSP]

Archive of the Miami Valley Folk Dancers

Credits