Dance card for the University of Illinois Senior Ball

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A dance card from the 1924 University of Illinois Senior Ball, which featured live music from King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. The dance card is a small, printed paper booklet strung on a silk cord loop with front and back covers composed of thin wood. Both the covers and twelve interior pages have been cut in a Swiss shield shape. Threaded through the jump ring at the top of the booklet is a gold and blue twisted cord loop that terminates in a blue and gold tassel at the top. Adhered to the center of the front cover is a bronze medallion stamped with the University of Illinois seal. Around the edge of the seal is a circular band with embossed text that reads [UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS / CHARTERED 1867]. The band frames the school motto that reads [LEARNING & LABOR] embossed in a semicircle at the top.

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