Howe's Complete Ball-Room Hand Book

Title page, from the OCR text of the Library of Congress copy hosted by the Library of Dance (1859-Howe-Complete_Ballroom_(Arc).txt, read 2026-09-19): "Complete Ball-Room Hand Book, containing upwards of [three hundred] dances ... including all the latest and most fashionable Waltz, Polka, Mazurka, Schottische, Gallopade, Common and Polka Redowa, Quadrilles, Cotillons, Varsovianna, Gorlitka, Madrillianne, Eletezka, Espagnole, Two, Three, and Five Step Waltz, etc. etc. Also, Common Waltz and Polka Contra Dances, May Day, Christmas, and New Years' Dances." Imprint on the same page: "Published by Ditson & Co., Boston, New York, and Philadelphia"; copyright line: "Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1858, by Elias Howe, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts." The Library of Dance catalogues this printing as 1859; the copyright year is 1858. Front matter, in the order printed: The Ball-Room; The Supper Room; Public Balls; Private Parties; Country and City Balls; Ball Dress for Gentlemen; Ball Dress for Ladies; Cotillon or Quadrille Bands; How to Call Quadrilles or Cotillons. Dance sections: Quadrilles; Country Dance; Cotillions or Cotillons, by named set (Caledonian Set, Clifton House Set, Basket Set, Coquette Set and others). Scan: Library of Congress copy (pdf at the access link); Archive.org djvu and OCR txt at the same Library of Dance path. The number lost in our OCR is "three hundred". Supplied from the Library of Congress catalogue record loc.gov/item/05026433, fetched this session, which gives the title verbatim as "Howe's complete ball-room hand book, containing upwards of three hundred dances, including all the latest and most fashionable dances ...". The figure is shown in square brackets above because it is the catalogue's reading, not ours. Same record notes "forty-two French Fancy Cotillons" and spells the dance "gorlitza" where our OCR reads "Gorlitka"; the LoC record is catalogued Boston ca. 1858, this row is the 1859 printing with the same 1858 copyright line, so the two are the same work in different printings. Not corrected in our OCR transcription: Varsovianna, Gorlitka, Madrillianne, Eletezka are left exactly as the scan reads them, and need a page-image read before any of them is normalised.