Slocan dance card, 1897

This amazing little item is in the midst of being transferred from the Touchstones Nelson archives to the Slocan Valley Historical Society. It’s a dance card, complete with pencil. (IOOF is the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.)

On the pencil is written “Johann Paper.” Alas, this card went unused, but it does reveal what sort of dances you were expected to know in 1897:

I’m not sure where Schonberg’s hall was, but at the time, Slocan City had two newspapers. I looked the dance up in both. These are the preview stories that appeared in the Slocan City News (left) and Slocan Pioneer (right) on Oct. 23:

A week later, the Pioneer provided a detailed recap:

The News included only a brief recap in its Oct. 30 edition, but offered a few more details the following week:

I haven’t yet checked to see if there was a second annual Odd Fellows dance.