Scope and Content
The Square Dance Legislation Collection consists primarily of correspondence, copies of proposed legislation, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, and other publications that document the history of legislative efforts to designate the square dance as the national folk dance. The collection also includes material concerning related efforts at the state level. It spans the years 1975 to 1995, with the largest portion concerning the public hearing on House Resolution 1706 in 1984. National Western-style square dance organizations have fostered a movement to add square dance to the list of national symbols. Between 1965 and 1995, more than thirty bills were introduced at the federal level. Their efforts also have focused on passing legislation at the state level; by 1995 at least 17 states had designated square dance as the official folk dance of that state.