June in Earlham History

Sweathearts Dance: A couple attending one of the College's first sanctioned dance events, held off-campus in the early 1930s.A dance event at the College probably wouldn’t top the news today, but the campus was abuzz on June 3, 1930 when The Quaker Quill newspaper reported on Earlham College’s first officially sanctioned dance event.

Staged by the Ionian Literary Society, the dance was held off campus at Eagles’ Hall in Richmond and featured a live orchestra. Participants in the dance found Eagles’ Hall to be “quite adequate for such an occasion.” Held in late spring, the dance was followed over the next several years by numerous off campus dances. By the autumn of 1931, dancing had become a fixture of the College social scene, with The Earlham Post reporting on successful dances in three issues that fall.

New College president William Cullen Dennis was reluctant to ease the ban on dancing that had been in place at Earlham for more than 80 years when he assumed the presidency in 1929, but mounting pressure from students led him to hand out a questionnaire on the subject at the conclusion of a Monday morning chapel in October, 1929. The Quaker Quill published a plea to students to fill out the questionnaire “honestly and willingly.”

Swaying to the Beat: Earlhamites enjoy themselves at one of the College's first dances. In 1930, President William C. Dennis relaxed the ban on dancing that had been in place for 80 years.When The Quill reported the results of the questionnaire the next week it showed overwhelming student support for dancing: 236 students approved of dancing at Earlham, while 37 disapproved. This overwhelming student support for dancing led Dennis, an 1896 graduate of the College, to allow dancing, with chaperones, a strict curfew, and only off-campus, for the first time in May, 1930.

The success of that event and subsequent dances led Dennis to allow dancing on campus by 1933. Dancing continues to be an important part of the social life on campus today and owes its prevalence to President Dennis and his willingness to adapt College policies to better reflect changing times and attitudes.