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The Philadelphia Dancing Assembly in the Eighteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2014

Lynn Matluck Brooks
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Extract

In eighteenth century Philadelphia the evolution of cultivated society closely followed-or rather kept step with-developments among the English elite. Colonists considered Bath, England to be “the centre of refined Colonial Society”, and those who could afford the time and expense visited there in order to attend plays, participate in assemblies, and absorb the latest trends in fashion and culture. Following the British model, one important attainment of any colonial gentleman or lady was grace of physical manner, evidenced in good part by skill in dancing. These manners and skills could best be appreciated in assemblies of polite society, assemblies where refined conversation, dancing, card-playing, and supping frequently provided the forum for social mingling.

Philadelphia was among the first of American cities to formalize such gatherings when, in 1749, a group of gentlemen who led the city's political, professional and mercantile life joined together in establishing the Philadelphia Assembly, sometimes also called the Dancing Assembly. As early as 1753 the fame and gentility of this assembly had spread to England, for Walter Ewer, Jr. wrote from London to his cousin William Sword in Philadelphia to ask if the latter had ever attended the city's Assembly, which Ewer wrote was reported to be “a fine one”. Another source recalled that “the dancing assembly among the gentry had high vogue, partaking, before the Revolution, of the aristocratic feelings of a monarchial government”.

Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , Spring 1989 , pp. 1 - 6
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 1989

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References

Notes

1. Quote from Historical Society of Pennsylvania (hereafter cited as HSP) Cadwalader Collection, “Geneological History of Thomas Willing”, by Thomas Willing, n.d., n.p. See also Bushman, Richard, “American High-Style and Vernacular Cultures” in Greene, Jack P. and Pole, J.R., eds. Colonial British America: Essays in the New History of the Early Modern Era. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984), pp. 358–60.Google Scholar

2. HSP Sword Family Papers, Letters, 18 Aug. 1753, n.p.

3. Watson, John F., Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in the Olden Times. (Pennsylvania: 1830, [1845 report.]), vol. 1, p. 276.Google Scholar See also: Rice, Kym, Early American Taverns: For the Entertainment of Friends and Strangers. (New York: Fraunces Tavern Museum, 1983), p. 110.Google Scholar

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6. AM 3075, docs. 1–5, 1748–49. See also Balch, Thomas Willing, The Philadelphia Assemblies (Philadelphia: Allen, Lane, and Scott, 1916), pp. 1–105.Google Scholar

7. HSP Shippen-Balch Papers, collection 2, p. 5, Letter from Edward Burd to Sally Burd, 17 Nov. 1767.

8. HSP Cadwalader Collection, J. Francis Fisher section, notes by Thomas Willing, box 10, n.p., n.d.

9. HSP Cadwalader Collection, letter from Col. Henry Bouquet to Miss Anne Willing, 28 Feb. 1760, box 10, n.p., n.d.

10. University of Pennsylvania, Dechert Collection, Letters and Papers Relating Chiefly to the Provincial History of Pennsylvania, ed. Thomas Balch, 1855, pp. 157–58.

11. HSP Society Miscellaneous Collection, (Shaw), letter, 3 May 1780, n.p.

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20. HSP Society Miscellaneous Collection, letter, 3 March 1780, n.p.

21. HSP AM 3075, doc. 11, n.d., n.p.

22. Balch, pp. 46–47; Watson, vol. 1, p. 277.

23. HSP Am 3075, doc. 9, n.p. (ca. 1792).

24. Henry Wansey and His American Journal (1794), ed. Jeremy, David John. (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1970), p. 104.Google Scholar

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29. See Digby Baltzell, E., Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of national Upper Class, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979), pp. 163–64Google Scholar; and Sims, Joseph P., ed. The Philadelphia Assemblies, 1748–1948. (Philadelphia: The Assembly Managers, 1947–1948).Google Scholar