Noyes School of Rhythm Foundation Archive General Preservation Assessment Project

FAIN: PG-252862-17

Noyes School of Rhythm Foundation, Inc. (East Hampton, CT 06424-1347)
Margaret Brooker (Project Director: May 2016 to June 2019)

A preservation assessment of a collection of records from a historic dance school established by artist and educator Florence Fleming Noyes (1871-1928). The archive consists of 100 linear feet of correspondence, newspapers, brochures, photographs, and film. The consultant would also conduct a workshop for staff on protecting the collection.

The Noyes School of Rhythm Foundation archives document the 100-year history of a dance practice that significantly contributed to early twentieth-century modern dance performance, therapeutic movement, the women's movement, and progressive education. The archive includes 100 linear feet of manuscript and other primary source material in a variety of formats, including business records, brochures, newsletters, correspondence, scrapbooks, newspapers, photographs, slides, and film. The depth and breadth of documentation is unique for an American dance school from the early 1900s. The school had a national reach in the 1920s, maintaining studios in New York at Carnegie Hall and in ten other major U.S. cities, and the founder, Florence Noyes, was highly visible as a woman's suffrage performer. This grant will fund consultation with the Northeast Document Conservation Center, including a general preservation assessment, a "protecting collections" workshop, and related preservation supplies.