Newberry Library has been a supporter and partner with Chicago Dance History Project since CDHP’s inception in 2015, with Newberry staff serving on CDHP’s advisory committee from 2016 to 2022. The existing partnership was enhanced in 2023, when our two organizations established an archival collaborative whereby, beginning in 2025, the Newberry will be hosting the majority of CDHP’s oral history interviews and panel discussion online in their digital library. As a component of the Newberry’s Midwest Dance Collection, CDHP’s archive will ultimately become freely and fully accessible, not only to scholars, dancers, and teachers, but to the entire creatively-curious public, in Chicago and around the world. The Newberry’s digital resources have been accessed more than two million times since the digital archive’s inception, demonstrating its success in connecting broad audiences with the humanities.

The Newberry Library has world-renowned strengths in eleven subject areas, including The Midwest Dance Collection, established in 1981. With a focus on Chicago and the Midwest, The Midwest Dance Collection encompasses more than 3,200 books and periodicals on dance history, as well as over 100 manuscript collections from dancers, dance companies, dance schools and studios, and other dance affiliates. At the core of this collection are the personal papers and research collection of dance critic Ann Barzel. The collection also includes the archival records of prominent Chicago dance companies like Hubbard Street Dance Company, Joel Hall Dancers & Center, Muntu Dance Theatre, Chicago City Ballet, and Mordine & Company Dance Theater. 

Chicago Dance History Project’s collaboration with the Newberry Library is not only mutually beneficial for the health and continuity of our two archives, but is expanding online and in-person public engagement for both institutions.